Playoff Predictions: AL

Red Sox (95-67) vs. Angels (100-62)

I don't understand why everyone loves the Angels. Yes they won 100 games, but they only outscored their opponents by 68 runs. This means that they won a lot of close games which could easily have gone the other way. They also killed the Red Sox when they played them, but this is not the same Sox team that lost those games.

Starting Pitching

The Sox will send Lester, Matsuzaka, and Beckett. Beckett has had an up and down season, but his peripheral numbers are solid and his postseason track record speaks for itself. He strained an oblique in a bullpen session or he'd probably be going in game one. If Beckett was healthy, this would be a 4 game series tops, but he's not and that's the wild card.

TLAAOA will counter with Lackey, Santana, and Saunders. Lackey and Santana, while solid did not pitch as well as Lester and Dice-K this year. Saunders was probably better than Beckett and is certainly better than Wakefield. Beckett has much better stuff and when he's on is better than everyone.

Advantage: Sox even with no Beckett.

Lineup

The Red Sox have the best lineup in the majors... when everyone is healthy. Once again the problem is that everyone isn't healthy. Youkilis and Pedroia were awesome this year, Bay and Ortiz were good and have been great in the past. They also have depth with Casey, Elsbury, Crisp, Cora, and Lowrie. The question marks are Lowell and Drew who will probably play, but may or may not be effective.

The Angles have Guerrero and Teixeira and Napoli has been fantastic down the stretch, but the rest of the line up isn't anything to be afraid of. I have never been a fan of Hunter who has power, but not much else. Then they have Anderson, GMJ and Figgins with Aybar and Kendrick as question marks. These guys will struggle mightily with Dice-K and Beckett, but they might be ok with Wakefield. Lester will also be tough, but not as bad as the righties.

Advantage: Sox even if Drew and Lowell don't get an AB

Bullpen

Yeah, I know KRod just set a major league record for finishing games in an arbitrary fashion, but he was not their best reliever. That distinction belongs to Jose Arrendondo who has been great all year. They also have Shields, Oliver, Weaver, and Garland. I'm counting only one lefty for Ortiz.

I'll take Papelbon over KRod and they also have Okie, Delcarmen, the tricky delivery of Lopez, and the key to the pen: Masterson who is aptly named because he has been masterful.

Advantage: Wash. The Angels will probably have to pitch more innings though.

Bench/Defense/Management/Intangibles
The Angels have almost no depth and everyone except Tex is injury prone which could cripple them, the Sox have more than enough. The Halos probably have the advantage on defense, but its close. I don't like Sciocia's managing style as much as everyone, because they give up outs. Francona is more my style. The Sox also have the Angels in intangibles with playoff warriors Ortiz, Beckett, and Papelbon in tow.

Prediction: Sox in 4, maybe 3. The Angels just don't have enough.

Breaking down the postseason matchups: NL

Brewers (90-72) vs. Phillies (90-72)

This is a match up that I believe hinges on what the Brewer pitchers other than CC can do. All kidding aside, CC will go in games 2 and 5 (the 2nd on 3 days rest, the 5th on 4). That means the Brewers must win at least one of the other 3 games. The starters will be some combo of Sheets, Bush, Suppan (who has been solid in the playoffs), Parra, and Gallardo. I'd bet on Suppan and Bush for sure and we'll see on Sheets/Gallardo for game 4.

Starting pitching:

Brewers: Sabathia and some combo of those listed above.
Phillies: Hamels, Moyer, Meyers, Blanton.
Advantage: Brewers especially if they can get anything out of Sheets. Sabathia is better than Hamels, and Meyers and Blanton are nothing to write home about. Gallardo could also be this year's Jon Lester, Anthony Reyes, or Jaret Wright.

Lineup:

The Brewers offense lives and dies with the homer. They can put a 10 spot up one night and get shutout the next. Except for Fielder, Durham, and Branyan, they do not take walks, and except for those three, they are right hand dominant. This is all good news though as the Phillies don't had a wild starter, have two lefties, and play in a park that favors the long ball.

The Phillies have six solid players led by Chase Utley and the streaky Ryan Howard. Most of the Phillies can take a walk, but they will be facing a Brewer staff that does not allow many. The Phillies are prone to the strikeout, and Howard can be neutralized by left handed pitcher.

Advantage: I'm going to call this a PUSH, but only because of the match ups. The Phillies will send lefties in 3 of the 5 games and their two righties aren't great.

Bullpen

Milwaukee: The only real weakness for the Brew Crew. If this were 2004 when Gagne, and Mota could still get their steroids, and when Riske was still good, it might be a different story, but it's not. They might want to consider Gallardo or Sheets to close because it's going to be scary with Torres out there if he has to face the meat of that Phillie lineup. Gagne and Mota have both been solid down the stretch, so maybe they'll be ok. Then again, CC will probably win or lose the game by himself, so they might not need the bullpen in every game.

Phillies: The bridge to Lidge has been solid led by Madsen and Durbin, but they have both shouldered heavy loads with 1 200 inning starter. Lidge has been lights out all year, but he was also lights out back in 2005 when Pujols hit one that hasn't landed yet... Just saying.

Advantage: Phillies.

Bench/Defense/Management/Intangibles
The Brewers have much better bench than the Phils, but they also have nutoriously bad defenders other than Hardy and Kendall. The Phillies are solid defensively with Utley and especially Feliz, but average to poor just about everywhere else. The management is tough to call because Sveum has about the same managing experience as I do, and Manual has never impressed me. I gotta go with the Crew on intagibles with Sabathia the leading reason but also Fielder who has been money down the stretch and in clutch situations.

Advantage: Brewers

Prediction: Brewers in 5. CC will win his second game of the series in a dual with Hamels. The Brewers will find a way to win agaisnt either Meyers or Blanton for their other win.


Dodgers (84-68) vs. Cubs (97-64)

Starting pitching:

The Dodgers will send Lowe, Billingsley, Kuroda, and either Maddux or Kershaw, probably Maddux.

The Cubs will counter with Dempster, Harden, Zambrano, and Lilly.

The Cubs certainly have the edge in talent and probably success in 2008, but they also have more question marks with health. Lowe has been a big game pitcher in the past, Maddux has been their before and Billingsley is their best pitcher.

Advantage: Dodgers. There are just too many question marks for the Cubs. Scouts say that Harden wasn't even hitting 90 MPH in his last throwing session, Zambrano has been about as consistent as the Diamondbacks were this year, and Dempster just threw more innings than he has in six years.

Lineup:

The best thing going for the Dodgers is that Andruw Jones will get 0 ABs in the series. They also just got Furcal back who may prove to be their saving grace. Oh, and they have some guy with dreads who can flat out rake.. Now if I could just remember his name.

The Cubs are solid 1-8, but don't have that one big slugger like the Dodgers have. They are also right hand dominant with all of their stars coming from that side (another reason to send Maddux).

Advantage: Cubs, but not by as much as it would have been just a little while ago.

Bullpen:

The Dodgers bullpen has been recently stabilized by the return of closer Takashi Saito. They have also gotten solid years out of Broxton, Beimel, Wade, Park, and Kuo.

The Cubs bullpen has been hailed as the greatest all year led by Wood, Marmol, and the recently added Samardjiza. The problem is that they have ridden Marmol for almost 90 innings, Wood is not lights out, and other than those 3, they're kind of shaky.

Advantage: Dodgers. Depth and power in that pen. The game is pretty much over after 7 innings.

Bench/Defense/Management/Intangibles:
A slight edge to the Cubs on the bench with Fontenot/Johnson, but the Dodgerss are much improved after getting everybody and their mother back from injury in the last few weeks. Neither team is good defensively but the Cubs do not have the cut off man playing leftfield, so that's a plus. Torre certainly has had more playoff success than Lou including beating Lou's 116 win monster back in 2001, but I like Lou's fire so that's close. The Dodgers definately have the intangibles working for them with Red Sox playoff heros Lowe and that other guy and his 100 million reasons to succeed, as well as the experience of Maddux and the rapping of Juan Pierre (maybe he can go to wrigley field and get that wiggley feel again!!). As for the Cubs. Well, they have that 100 year thing going for them, but come on, they're the Cubs!

Advantage: Push

Prediction: Dodgers in 5. I'm really surprised here as I thought the Cubs would clean up. But the Dodgers are peaking at the right time and have far fewer questions in the rotation. If Harden and Zambrano can pitch like they did in the middle of the summer, then its a different story, but I just don't see that happening. The Dodgers starters really only need to give them 6 good innings which I think they are more than capable of doing. I can't say the same about the Cubs. Zambrano has been kicked around since his no hitter (which in retrospect may have been a bad thing since he had to throw so many pitches) and Harden can't control his pitches enough to last past the 5th much of the time. The Cubs match up much better with the Phillies, Brewers, or Mets, but I think they drew the one team that can beat them. And boy will is be a sad day when they do. I wonder who they'll blame it on this time.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Wrigley for the mighty Cubs have bowed out.

Brewers announce playoff rotation

The Brewers have come out with their playoff rotation for 2008:

Game 1. CC Sabathia
Game 2. CC Sabathia
Game 3. CC Sabathia
Game 4. CC Sabathia (if necessary)

Brewers GM Doug Melvin also added that if the Phillies somehow beat Sabathia twice to force a game 5, Sabathia has volunteered to pitch right handed in an effort to confuse Phillie hitters.

There is also talk of renaming the franchise the Sabathias.

Aces in the Hole: CC Sabathia and Johan Santana

With the season winding down, their teams pitching staffs in disarray, and needing to win, the Mets and Brewers turned to the two best pitchers in baseball to take the ball on short rest and they both delivered.

First Santana, coming off the highest pitch count of his career, took the hill on 3 days rest for the first time as a starter and shutout a solid Marlins lineup, allowing 6 runners and striking out 9. One timezone away, the Brewers Ben Sheets could not respond as he suffered through 2.1 terrible innings before being relieved. Since throwing a shutout against the Padres 3 weeks ago, Sheets has been injured and ineffective. Who knows if he'll even pitch in the playoffs, but if he does, he'll have to regain his form from earlier in the season if the Brewers want to last long.

The next day however was a different story. For on this day, the Brewers had the only man on the planet who could out do Santana: CC Sabathia. Sabathia, pitching on three days rest for the third time in a row, pitched even better than Santana had the previous day allowing just one unearned run on 5 baserunners, only one of whom got past second base. Less than an hour later the Mets failed to beat the Marlins to force a playoff, they celebrated in Milwaukee for the first time in 26 years.

This brings me to my point. The one thing I don't like about the wild card is that teams do not have equal schedules. Why should the final playoff spot have been decided by what the Mets did against the Marlins or what the Brewers did against the depleted Cubs? Baseball should have stepped in and changed the schedule forcing the Brewers to play the Mets for the final spot. A playoff when tied would not be the same as both teams were going to move mountains to try and win yesterday depleting themselves to a point that the playoff would have been won by the team that could still stand after the dust settled.

No, we could have had a Sunday of Johan vs. Sabathia for all the marbles. That would have been one for the ages. Too bad it never happend. Maybe we can get something close in the NLDS with CC vs. Hamels in game 5, but thats asking a lot.

Awards and Thoughts On Voting

The most debated award in all of sports is probably the MVP in baseball. Everyone has their own definition of what an MVP should be, what stats are important, if "intangibles" can be considered, and what not.

Lets start with the basic thought that the MVP has to come from a winning team. This is ridiculous because a player's teammates have no effect on his value to the team. If anything, a good player on a bad team is actually more valuable than a good player on a good team because the player on the bad team has less help and is a much larger factor in whether or not his team wins. The only part of this argument that has any merit is the player dealing with the pressure of a pennant race. This would disqualify players on great teams as well as bad teams because great teams clinch in August or early September, so while the thought could be used as a tiebreaker, it should not be the end all be all of the MVP. When Vlad Guerrero played for Montreal, he never received a single 1st place vote for MVP, and he never finished higher than 4th. His first year with TLAAOA, he won in a landslide despite having a slight drop off from his Montreal production. That makes a lot of sense.

My basic criteria for MVP:
1. He must be the best player on his team. In some cases a team can have 2 best players that are virtually tied. In that case, it would be ok to vote for two of the players. What does not make sense is voting for two players from the same team when one was considerably better than the other. For example there is no way Jimmy Rollins should have won when Chase Utley was better, and Justin Morneau certainly should not have won in 2006.

2. It is not the award for best hitter. Therefore position, fielding, and baserunning must be considered. The spectrum is: C, SS, 2B, CF, 3B, RF, LF, 1B, DH. The farther you are to the left, the positions get tougher, it is more critical to be a good fielder, and there are fewer great players. There are a TON of good hitting LFs, 1Bs, and DHs, but not so many Cs, SSs and 2B.

3. A pitcher can win the MVP, but he had better have had by far the best year of anybody to compensate for not playing every day.

4. It is a 6 month season and every game counts the same so you must have played, and played well all year. You do not get bonus points for being bad for the first half and good in the second half even if your being good coincided with your team's rise in the standings.

My awards:
AL MVP
By far the most difficult of the awards to sort out because no one really had an outstanding year on offense. That makes my decision for me.

1. Cliff Lee - Indians
No one had a bigger impact on their team winning games than Lee. In a year of ups and downs for the Indians, Lee was the consistent driving force. The team went from 14 games out of first on July 11 to 6.5 games out today. The bottom line is that when Lee starts, the Indians are 24-7 including a loss when he threw 9 shutout innings, and when everyone else starts, they are 57-73.

2. Dustin Pedroia - Red Sox
When Papi was bad or hurt, and Manny whined his way out of town, Pedroia stepped up hitting everywhere in the lineup, playing stellar defense, running the bases well, and keeping the Red Sox afloat in baseball's toughest division.

3. Joe Mauer- Twins
Best hitting catcher, and best fielding catcher in baseball. The biggest reason the Twins are where they are.

NL MVP
This one is not close.

1. Albert Pujols - Cardinals
By far the best player in baseball this year. There is no acceptable reason not to vote him first. Albert is a great hitter, fielder, baserunner, clutch hitter, and he has done it all year. This has been his best year, and the best non-Bonds year in quite some time. The only excuse for not voting for Pujols is that the Cards did not make the playoffs. Fine. If that's your standard all 10 of your MVP votes had better come from playoff teams. Otherwise you are contradicting yourself.

2. Hanley Ramirez - Marlins
Absolutely terrific hitter and the driving force for the surprising Marlins all year. If the Marlins would get him out of the leadoff spot, he could be even more productive. Ken Rosenthal didn't even have Hanley in his top 10. That's just flat out inexcusable because if Ramirez played in New York or Philly, the debate would be Ramirez vs. Pujols and no one else would even be in the conversation.

3. Johan Santana - Mets
Forget Wright, Reyes, Delgado, Beltran, and everyone else. Santana is the Mets MVP and the difference between the 2008 Mets and the 2007 Mets. He has been great all year and lethal under the pressure of the pennant race. His 117 pitch shutout of the Marlins yesterday on 3 days rest to put the Mets back into a tie for the wild card was legendary.

AL Cy Young
1. Lee
Also not close. Halladay has had a great year, but he has a much better defense behind him and he still has not been able to top Cliff in ERA.

2. Roy Halladay - Jays
Just about any other year, he'd be a lock, but Cliff has just been better.

3. Jon Lester - Red Sox
Lester comes in with a very surprising, but very distant third. He has been the staff ace for the Sox this year when Beckett faltered. The Twins must be kicking themselves for not getting this guy for Johan.

NL Cy
The second most interesting race, which has just gotten even more exciting.

1. Johan Santana - Mets
Lincecum could still win this back today, but Johan's start yesterday vaulted him into the lead. He could easily be 22-5 or so with a better bullpen and a little more run support . He has the most innings, the lowest ERA, and has pitched in the most pressure packed situations of any NL pitcher.

2. Tim Lincecum - Giants
Timmy has had a great season for a horrible team. He has probably thrown too many pitches and too many innings, but we wont know for sure for a few years.

3. Cole Hamels - Phillies
Hamels has anchored a starting rotation that has been otherwise bad and inconsistent all year. He has been better than other guys who will get more votes like Brandon Webb and that is solely because his W-L record is not that impressive.

AL ROY
1. Evan Longoria - Rays
This isn't close. Don't try to make it be. No one else even deserves mention.

NL ROY
1. Geovany Soto - Cubs
See AL Roy.

AL Manager
1. Joe Maddon
See NL ROY

NL Manager
1. Freddi Gonzalez - Marlins
Contended for 25 weeks with a payroll less than AROD's salary.
2. Sweet Lou - Cubs
Yeah they were supposed to win, but they're the Cubs things go wrong all the time. Lou kept them steady and by far the best team in the NL all year. Lets see if he can do it in the playoffs.
3. Bruce Bouchy - Giants
The fact that this team didn't lost 3/4 of its games in incredible. On paper, their offense was about as threatening as a teddy bear. They had Lincecum and Cain and 3 days of rain, but not much else. Bouchy kept them out of cellar and that's impressive.

Special Futility Award
Mark Reynolds - Diamondbacks
Not only did Reynolds blow past Adam Dunn and Ryan Howard to become the first player to strikeout 200 times in a season, he also made a staggering 34 errors in the field which is by far the most in baseball. To Reynolds' credit, he's a promising young player, but if he has a few more seasons like this, he wont be around for long.

Why Would You Do That Awards:

To Josh Byrnes for trading Carlos Quentin to the White Sox.
Quentin would certainly have helped the godawful DBacks line up score some more runs and probably win the division. Quentin was traded so the team could keep Eric Byrnes in left. Byrnes who's contract was up at the end of last year was signed to an extension despite the fact that he really isn't very good. Byrnes was incredibly bad in 52 games before losing the rest of the season to injury.

To John McLaren and Jim Riggleman for giving Jose Vidro 330 plate appearances at DH and 1B while he hit a staggering .234 /.274/.338.

To Ned Colletti for signing Andruw Jones for 2 years 36 mil when he already had a full outfield. At least he only gave Jones a 2 year contract, because anymore and this might have gone down as the worst signing in history. Jones hit even worse than Vidro .158/.249/.256. I'm going to start calling the .500 OPS mark the Andruw line.

To anyone who thought the Tigers would score 1000 runs or that the Mariners would win the West. Assuming the Tigers score 9 runs in their last 2 games, they will miss 1000 by a mere 150 or about 1 run per game. Seattle meanwhile is 39 games out of 1st. Looking back, neither prediction made much sense. Even if all 9 hitters in the Tigers lineup replicated their respective career years, they would have had a hard time scoring 1000 runs. And to think that anyone other than Granderson and Cabrera would not regress with age is poor thinking. Seattle, while being much worse than even I expected, never looked like anything more than a .500 team. They have no big producers on offense, and they do not have a deep pitching staff.

Rob Dibble Uses Statistics

Today I was listening to Dibble and Kennedy on XM 175. Why? Because I'm an idiot.

Anyway, they were discussing why pitchers don't go as deep into games as they did in the past. Dibble is convinced it is because we are babying our young pitchers too much. He goes on to cite specific examples, most of which don't make any sense. But he peaks when he goes on to say:

"I think that starters going fewer innings is why earned run averages are so high. I's acceptable for a guy to have an ERA in the 4s now. It didn't use to be."

Wha??? Does Dibble really think that having less tired pitchers is the reason for more runs?

The call in guest tries to refute this point saying that the two are unrelated, but Dibble stops he right there.

"We use statistics to back things up on this show..." He goes on to pull up starters innings, complete games, games started, whatever and compares them to league average ERAs.

Dibble obviously never took statistics in school (assuming he actually went to school something that is debatable) and thus never learned that correlation does not equal causation. This is something that a lot of people don't understand. Take Al Gore for instance: he is sure that just because the world's temperature has increased slightly over the past 20-30 years, it must be because of the increase in CO2 emissions! It couldn't be due to the scientific fact that the sun has been giving off more energy during the same period of time, or due to the geological cycles that planets all go through. No, it must be the .05% increase in greenhouse gasses. Anyway, I digress.

Dibble completely ignores the following: they lowered the mound 5 inches in 1968, the top of strikezone has moved from the shoulders to the letters to the belt since then, the DH was added in the AL, new ballparks were built everywhere and almost all were smaller than the ballpark they replaced, and finally steroids entered the game.

The biggest reason for less innings being thrown by starters in the increased number of pitches per inning. Due to the smaller strikezone, more pitches are called balls which forces pitchers to throw more pitches. The onset of Sabermetrics has led to more and more players working the count waiting for their pitch which means even when pitchers throw a pitch in the strikezone, it is more likely to be a good pitch to hit which has led to more hits allowed per inning. Finally, players don't just make contact anymore. Most players go to the plate and swing as hard as they can everytime, trying to hit the ball out of the park. This inevitably leads to more strikeouts, reaching to unheared of levels. And Rob, statistics do back this up:

In 1964, Ron Santo led the NL in walks with 86. Norm Siebern led the AL with 106.
In 2007, Barry Bonds led the NL with 132. David Ortiz led the AL with 111. There has no been a league leader in walks with less than 100 in a non strike year since 1986. Frank Thomas walked 109 times in the 112 game strikeout year.

In 1964, Dick Allen (NL) and Nelson Matthews (AL) (hitters) led their leagues in strikeouts with 138 and 143 respectively.
In 2008, Mark Reynolds, Ryan Howard, and Jack Cust are all over 190 and theres still a week to play!

In 1964, Bob Veale and Al Downing (pitchers) led the NL and AL with 250 and 217 strikeouts respectively.
In 2007, despite each pitching almost 50 fewer innings, Jake Peavy and Scott Kazmir recorded 240 and 239 Ks respectively.

Sandy Koufax and Sam McDowell were the first pitchers to average more that 10 K/9 doing it in 1960 and 1966 respectively. It was done 12 times prior to 1990 6 times by Nolan Ryan, and 3 times by Koufax. Since 1990, it has been done 42 times.

The two most durable pitchers of this ERA are probably Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens. The players Dibble mentioned as durable were Bert Blyleven, Bob Gibson, and Nolan Ryan among others. Roy Halladay will be used as the "today" example. Since pitch counts are unavailable for all games, we will look at innings, batters faced, strikouts, and walks. We will also look at their 162 game averages rather than specific seasons which could serve as outliers.

Halladay: IP - 229, BF - 947, BB - 53, SO - 163
Johnson: IP - 232, BF - 958, BB - 84, SO - 275
Clemens: IP - 236, BF - 971, BB - 75, SO- 224
Blyleven: IP - 245, BF - 1011, BB - 65, SO - 182
Gibson: IP - 261, BF - 1081, BB - 89, SO - 209
Ryan: IP - 232, BF - 971, BB - 120, SO - 245

Ryan appears to be a freak and Halladay seems to be a pussy, but the rest are right in line. Look how many more strikeouts Johnson has compared to the other guys in pretty close to the same number of BF. I'd wager Johnson and Clemens threw about the same # of pitches per year as guys like Gibson and Blyleven. They just didn't go as many innings.

Dibble further discredited himself when he said this: "Those pitchers were still the best pitchers on their teams in the 9th inning after 100+ pitches. Even if they were at 80%, they were still better than the relievers, and I think it's the same today. I think Johan Santana at 80% is still the best option the Mets have."

He is given a chance to back out of that... You mean better than Heilman?

"No, I think Johan Santana at 80% is better that Wagner."

Wha???

Does he think that Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte are better than Mariano Rivera?

Career ERAs: Santana - 3.14, Wagner 2.40
Whatever Robby.

Rob is also the guy who said OPS was made up by ESPN and that you really can't judge Jim Rice by the numbers.

Everybody Else is Doing it, so why not?

Farewell Yankee Stadium.


At this time tomorrow, Yankee Stadium will be hosting the last game in its illustrious history. It will be closed by the great rivalry that is the Yankees and... the Orioles. Yawn. Why are the Red Sox not closing the stadium on the final day of the season. To the schedule maker: Why would you do that? (or why wouldn't you do that in this case). I guess baseball must have just assumed that the empire would be going to the playoffs again, but it was far from a sure thing as the Rays have proved. I have no sentimental ties to the Stadium and won't miss it. I thought it was incredibly overrated and is a worse place to watch a game than any of the following parks: Jacobs (Progressive) Field, PNC Park, Nationals Park, Fenway, Wrigley, US Cellular, Comerica, Tiger Stadium, and even Shea. Maybe it had to do with the seats I had, I don't know.

Anyway, great park or not, it has witnessed some of the greatest moments in baseball history, and the most championship games of any sports venue in the history of the country so it deserves some kind of tribute. Which brings me to my top 5 memories of the Stadium. Keep in mind that I can't stand the Empire, so the list will be full of bad things happening to the Yankees.

5 couldn't pick one so there's a tie at 5:

a. Byrd handcuff's Yankees, sends them home
A Yankee team built with guys who hammer fastballs couldn't figure out one of the softest tossers in the bigs. They scored 2 runs off the bullpen, but Joe Freakin Borowski managed to get the three highest profile Yankees: Jeter, ARod, and Posada out in the 9th, sealing the deal with a strikeout of Posada. Sizemore had an excellent day with 2 hits, 2 walks and a homer to lead the offense to victory.

b. Tigers Rally, take control of series
On paper, the 2006 ALDS looked like a mismatch especially when they pounded game 1 starter
Nate Robertson for 12 hits and 7 runs. While people like me were screaming at the TV asking of Jim Leland starting Robertson, "Why would you do that?!" When game 2 was rained out, I skipped my religion class to watch the make up live. The Tigers struck first on Thames's double in the second, but NY made it 3-1 with Johnny Damon's 3 run homer in the 4th. The Tigers chipped away with runs in the 5th, 6th, and 7th as Granderson and Guillen came up huge. The Tigers turned it over to Zoom Zoom Zumaya for the 7th and 8th which he dominated, and after a shaky ninth from Todd ~ Jones, the Tigers left the Bronx with a split. That proved to be all they would need as Rogers turned into Christey Matthewson, Randy Johnson's slider went like this --- and Jaret Wrong could not recapture his 1997 form sending the Empire home empty handed once again.

4. Cone's Perfect Game
It was Yogi Berra day at the stadium, July 18th, 1999. The battery from the only perfect game (or no hitter) in postseason history was in attendance (Berra and Larsen) and David Cone was on the mound against the Montreal Expos. Cone, the man whom I consider to be the most important player for the Yankees 1990s dynasty, had thrown 7 no hit innings in 1996, but was removed after hitting a very strict pitch count. In 1996, it was Cone's first start in 4 months after suffering and aneurysm. Cone had a second chance at immortality and no pitch count, no a rain delay could have stop him as he needed just 88 pitches, and withstood a half hour rain delay to throw the last perfect game of the millennium, and the only perfect game in regular season interleague play. I managed to catch the last 3 innings on bonus coverage. The game strangely marked the end of Cone's dominance as he was largely ineffective the rest of the season, suffered through an awful 2000 season where he was restricted to relief duty in the playoffs, and never regained his previous form.

3. 2003 ALCS
The best rivalry in sports went head to head in the playoffs for only the second time ever in one of the greatest postseason series I have ever witnessed. Only one game was decided by more than two runs. The Yankees had owned baseball for the last decade, but Boston and new hot shot GM Theo Epstein was on the rise. It was Epstein's first year and he wasted no time making changes bringing in players such as Bill Mueller, Kevin Millar, and most importantly David Ortiz (who had been RELEASED by the Twins). He also announced that his team would use a "Closer by committee" which was completely against the strategy used by most managers. The Red Sox had also not won a World Series in 85 years while the Yankees had won 26. The tensions had mounted over the previous years and the rivalry was arguably at an all time high. In game 3 those tensions boiled over. With Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens dueling it out, Pedro hit Karim Garcia resulting in a shouting match and Pedro famously pointing at his head which many took as him saying "Ill hit you in the head!" The next inning, Clemens came in high and tight to the always volatile Manny Ramirez. Despite the fact that the pitch was nowhere near his head, Ramirez mouthed the words "F*** You" and began walking towards the mound. The benches emptied and Yankee bench coach, the 72 year old Don Zimmer went after Pedro who threw him to the ground and swung at his head.

The Red Sox, led by Tim Wakefields dominance won games 1 and 4 while the Yankees won games 2, 3, and 5 holding Boston to just 7 runs in the 3 games. Game 6 saw the veteran John Burkett taking on Yankee playoff ace Andy Pettitte with the Sox fighting off elimination. The Sox jumped out to a 4-1 lead but lost it when Nomar Gaciaparra botched the 3rd out in the 5th, leading to 2 unearned runs. Nomar would redeem himself starting a 3 run rally in the 7th to lead the team to victory forcing game 7 and a rematch of Clemens vs. Pedro.


The game lived up to the hype as it was exciting from the start. Clemens was shelled early and left after giving up Millar's homer in the 4th that made it 4-0. It looked like it could be the end of Clemens career in what would be the first of many curtain calls for the king of mismemory. With the Sox up 4-2 in the 8th and Pedro around 100 pitches, Grady Little was ordered by Epstein to remove Pedro from the game. He sent him out there anyway. After Pedro allowed the first run, Little went out and had one of the most famous conversations on the mound in history. With Timlin and Embree ready in the pen, Little asked Pedro if he could stay in. Pedro pointed to himself saying that he was ready and Little left him in. Back to back doubles by Matsui and Posada tied the game and Little went to his pen. The pen was able to keep the score tied, but the damage had been done. Rivera came in and handcuffed the Sox for 3 innings. The Sox once again turned to series ace Tim Wakefield for help, and he pitched a perfect 10th, but in the bottom of the 11th, the flutterball finally ran out of miracles as Aaron Boone of all people led of the inning with a walk off homer, becoming this generation's version of Bucky bleepin' Dent.

2. Beckett Becomes The Man
The Yankees had survived the Sox and faced the upstart Marlins, who were heavy underdogs, in the world series. The Marlins played much better than expected leading 3-2 as the series returned to the Bronx. Unfortunately the only rested Marlin pitcher was Mark Redman who had been hammered in game 2 by the bombers. To add to that, the Yankees had old reliable Andy Pettitte set to start. Marlins manager Jack McKeon boldly chose his projected game 7 starter, the 23 year old Josh Beckett, to start on 3 days rest. Beckett, a former 1st round pick, had been very successful in the playoffs and had pitched well in game 3, but was not an established star at the time, and had thrown 108 pitches 4 days earlier. The move was questioned by everyone, including yours truly. Beckett made McKeon look like a genius when he went the distance for a 5 hit shutout. No Yankee reached 3rd base as Beckett proved himself to be a big game pitcher, becoming the first pitcher since Jack Morris in 1991 to clinch the series with a shutout, sending the Yankees home crying.

1. Shilling's Bloody Sock
If the rivalry peaked in 2003, it rose even higher in 2004. The Sox once again rebuilt themselves in the offseason for the sole purpose of getting past the Yankees. Curt Schilling and closer Keith Foulke were the centerpieces of the winter. Schilling had established himself as the best big game pitcher in baseball, leading the Diamondbacks to the World Series in 2001 and taking the ball every 4th day in the playoffs for most of his career. Foulke was a star closer for the A's and figured to sure up the bullpen that Little had passed over in favor of a tiring Pedro Martinez. In the middle of the season, Epstein shook things up even more trading superstar Nomar Garciaparra for Doug Mentkiewicz and Orlando Cabrera. Schilling did not disappoint going 21-6, finishing second to Johan Santana for the Cy Young, and pitching well in his first round start against the Angels. The outspoken Schilling boldly took the mound in game 1 saying before the game, "I can't think of anything better than making 60,000 people from New York shut up!" The Yankees responded by shutting Schilling up with 6 runs in 3 innings and Schilling left injured. The Yanks fought off a late rally by the Sox to win 10-7 in game 1. The won a squeaker against Pedro in game 2, and destroyed basically the entire pitching staff in game 3 19-8. They entered Fenway in game 4 up 3-0. No team had ever come back from 3-0 in the history of baseball.

With Schilling out, former 20 game winner Derek Lowe took the mound against playoff stud Orlando Hernandez. Lowe blew a 3-2 lead and the Yankees, up 4-3, turned it over to the automatic Mo Rivera in the 8th for a two inning save. What transpired was perhaps the most amazing course of events I have ever seen in baseball.

After a perfect 8th, Rivera walked Kevin Millar who was pinch run for by stolen base specialist Dave Roberts. Even though everyone in the world knew he was going, Roberts survived multiple pickoff attempts by Rivera, went on the first pitch, and barely stole second. Bill Mueller singled and Roberts ran like there was no tomorrow racing home to tie the game. After Rivera kept the score tied, Curt Leskanic escaped a bases loaded jam in the 11th, and the Sox entered the bottom of 12 with the score still 5-4. Ramirez singled and Ortiz homered to win the game 6-4.

Game 5 saw Pedro take the hill once again against Yanks starter Mike Mussina. Pedro blew an early lead, but the Yanks bullpen blew it back leaving the score 4-4 until the 14th as both teams narrowly dodged bullets. Walks by Damon and Ramirez brought Ortiz to the plate with 2 on and 2 out. Big Papi as he had come to be called responded with a clutch hit for the second consecutive night, a single the allowed Damon to score the winning run. The game returned to Yankee stadium for game 6.

Curt Schilling had been trying and trying to get back on the mound since game 1 and after back to back extra inning affairs, the Sox were basically out of options for game 6. An experimental procedure attaching the skin to the bone in his right ankle was put into play with hopes that it would allow him to use his natural pitching mechanics. Schilling responded with the guttiest performance I have ever seen throwing 7 innings of 4 hit ball with a Bernie Williams homer the only run. Midway through the game, cameras panned to the sock on his right ankle which, by then, was stained with blood. The 4 runs the Sox scored in the 4th would be all they would need despite ARod's best attempt to cheat by swatting Bronson Arroyo's tag in the 8th. Foulke held on to a 2 run lead in the 9th to force game 7, the first team that had been down 3-0 to do so. The Sox would go on to blow the Yanks out in game 7, win the world series and break the curse of the Bambino. Ortiz was named series MVP after going 12 for 31 with 3 homers and the two key game winners. Foulke finished the series having allowed no runs on one hit and pitching in 5 games including preserving the wins in 4, 5, and 6.

It may be the house the Ruth built, but Ruth never had to face Curt Schilling, the biggest Yankee killer of them all.

The Top Five Hitters Over the Past 20 Years

Someone recently asked who I thought have been the top 5 hitters over the past 20 years. I thought, wow, that's a good question. 20 years encompasses basically when this era began: all rotations were 5 man, complete games were rare, 1 inning relief specialists became increasingly more common and ball parks got smaller. We will ignore the steroid guys because except for Bonds, none would make the list anyway, and there is no way Bonds wasn't as dirty as can be imagined.

Here we go concentrating purely on hitting ability:

*averages based on per 162 games.

1. Albert Pujols - Only 8 years, but seriously the guy has been fantastic every year and has had an unprecedented first 8 years: .334/.424/.623. Averaging 45 doubles, 42 homers, 91 walks a year. His worst year consisted of a line of .314/.394/.561, 34 HRs, more walks than strikeouts. Career almost 10 RC/27. Best hitter since Ted Williams.

2. Frank Thomas - 1991-1997 was a better stretch than even Pujols has put together. Frank has gotten hurt by the fact he was mostly a DH, and that his career year was 1994 when he might have won the triple crown had the season played out. OPS+ during those years: 180, 174, 177, 211, 179, 178, and 181. Wow 174 for the low! Only 3 of Albert's years have been better than that. Maybe I should rethink my Frank in the HOF thoughts, but then I remember that other than his bat he contributed absolutely nothing.

3. Manny - .314/.410/.592 career line, an average of 41 hrs, 93 walks. He was absolutely robbed for the MVP in 1999 when he somehow managed to finish T-3rd. WTF??? He always gets punished for having good teammates which makes at least a little more sense than punishing someone like Pujols for having bad teammates.

4. Chipper Jones - Also one of the most unappreciated. The best switch hitter since the Mick, he has been a hitting machine since he came up with a line of .310/.407/.548. What hurts him is his inability to stay healthy, this is his 5th straight year with a significant amount of time missed. If he can keep it together for a few more years, he should end up with 3000 hits, 550 homers, and a lifetime average over .300.

5. Alex Rodriguez - Sure he's an A hole, but he can sure hit. Line of .306/.389/.579, and likely will break a whole bunch of records: HR, RBI, R, and a very slim chance at H.

Most underrated:
1. Mike Piazza - .308/.377/.545 for a catcher! And there was a 6 or 7 year stretch where he hit like .330 with 30-40 homer power. Imagine what he might have done as a 1st baseman without the wear and tear of catching.

2. Jones

3. Jim Thome - Should never have left the CLE where he absolutely raked every year: lowest OPS of 132 during those years, 30 HRs, 100 walks every year he was healthy. Career year in 2002 - .304/.445/.677 when he somehow managed to finish 7th in the MVP voting despite out producing 6 of the guys in front of him.

4. Edgar Martinez - Yeah, he was a DH, but a career line of .312/.418/.515, and from 1995-2002 he was as good as anyone on my list. OPS+ of 185, 166, 165, 158, 152, 157, 160. And he had the decency to walk away when he was done

5. Brian Giles - Talk about underrated, 4 absolutely amazing years with Pit. Career line of .294/.404/.510. A little lacking on BA and HRs but he makes up for it with a lot of walks and a lot of doubles.

Most overrated:
1. Ichiro - basically just a singles hitter. Not much in the way of power or walks. Career OPS just .808. Somehow won MVP in 2001??? Great fielder/baserunner, but not hitter.

2. Alfonso Soriano - basically just power, not much in the way of average or on base, and a lot of Ks.

3. Ken Griffey Jr. - Don't get me wrong, KGJ was great, but he "only" hit .300 in 8 of his 20 seasons, only has a lifetime .288 AVG and .373 OBP and even when he was healthy wasn't much once he left Seattle. Never had 100 walks, never had 200 hits, never hit over .330, never OBPed over .410, never OPS+ed over 175. His career highs aren't as good as Albert's averages.

4. Tony Gwynn - considered one of the best hitters ever by some, but he was really just a singles hitter. If he had the same numbers except 500 less singles and 500 more walks, would he even be in the HOF? No, he'd be named Tim Raines, and really what's the difference between a single and a walk?

5. Craig Biggio - Had some great years, but really hurt himself by hanging on too long and has a very pedestrian line of .281/.363/.433 for his career. He really does not belong in the HOF.

The Boston Red Sox: The Clear World Series Favorites

Well, it looks like my preseason pick of the Cleveland Indians did not work out for the series although I still maintain that without a barrage of injuries it would have. Anyways it's time to reassess heading into the last week of the season.

In the NL you have the Cubs... And well, the Cubs. If the Marlins manage to get in, they will be dangerous, but they're five games back with less than 10 to play so it looks bad for them. Any of the other teams, while they may make an improbable run to the series, will be severely over matched by any of the AL teams excluding whoever wins Comedy Central.

That leaves the Sox, Rays, and Angels as contenders. Everyone loves the Angels, but I tend to disagree. TLAAOA have a good record in a terrible division, a guy who just set a record for the most of the stupidest statistical category there is in one season, and a manager everyone loves. What they don't have is a dominating team. The have scored only 704 runs, 10th in the AL in: awful, and they have allowed 639, 4th in the AL: decent but not great. Their run differential is 7th in the AL and worse than 4 of the teams in the AL East. The lineup consists of 2.5 good hitters, a few mediocre and the rest bad. The bench is bad. The bullpen is excellent, but will pitch at most 3-4 innings per game. They have one legit ace, 2 more solid starters, and 2 about average starters. They are a team built to succeed over a long season because they have good pitching for every day. They are not built to win in October which takes great hitting and even greater pitching. To top it off, this is nowhere near the best Angels team in the past 5 years, and none of them have done much in October, so why should this bunch?

The Rays are very young, but very talented. They possess a pitching staff about as good as TLAAOA, but a much better lineup. While they lack the up front star power of Guerrero and Teixeira, they have 8 guys who can all beat you starting with soon to be superstar Evan Longoria. Trust me, this is David Wright of the AL. The only legit out in the lineup is Bartlett and he's at least as good as Aybar, Matthews, and Mathis. The Rays will likely fall victim to the "No stars" or the "No experience" paradox. Both have been overcome with young talent by the '03 Marlins and the '02 Angels, but usually you need one or the other.

Which brings me to the team of the '00s, the Boston Red Sox. They look ready to go for their 3rd title in 5 years as they have all the pieces to the puzzle. A solid lineup with plenty of playoff experience, a solid bench, the best closer in baseball other than Rivera and maybe Nathan, and a 3 man rotation of Beckett, Lester, and Matsuzaka. The keys are David Ortiz and even more importantly Josh Beckett.

As Curt Schilling, the best big game pitcher of his generation put it, "Beckett is the best big game pitcher in the game today." He certainly has a great track record: 2 postseasons, 2 world series rings, 2 postseason MVP awards. Beckett's career postseason numbers are some of the best ever: 6-2, 1.73 ERA, 0.74 WHIP, 10.2 K/9. Even in his two losses, he has yet to have a bad postseason outing. By comparison, his numbers are better than John Smoltz, Curt Schilling, Randy Johnson, Jack Morris, Sandy Koufax, and are even close to playoff superstar Mariano Rivera.

Ortiz is also excellent his career postseason line is .317/.418/.587, and if you throw out the time before he got to Boston, it's an even more impressive .325/.443/.613, among the best of all time for those with over 150 PAs.

Anything can happen in a short series, but Boston has got to be the odds on favorite to repeat as champs.

ARod the Scourge of Gotham

Sounds like the title to a Batman movie. Anyway, it seems that every Yankee fan I talk to just hates Alex Rodriguez despite the rather obvious fact that he is the best player on their team. The reasons range from every stupid answer you can think of:

1. "He's not clutch"
2. "He doesn't play the game the right way"
3. "He's not a true Yankee"
4. "He's only in it for the records"
5. "He doesn't play with heart"
6. "He chokes in the playoffs"
7. "He's only in it for the money."

Of all of these, the only one I'll buy is the last one. Alex Rodriguez is murderously overpaid, and this a mistake that has been made not once, but twice! The Texas Rangers outbid everyone by $100 mil to sign him the first time, and when he was stupid enough to opt out of that "the owner must have been really drunk to offer such a deal contract," the Yankees were right there to outbid everyone by more than $100 mil and give him an even worse contract with incentives for breaking records, but none for winning.

As for the others:
1. Clutch: There is really no such thing as clutch, but there are definitely chokers. ARod however really isn't one. His career "clutch" OPSes:

RISP: .959, men on: .982, 2 out RISP: .890, late and close: .906, tied game: .972, 1 run: .981

These are right in line with his career OPS of .968 with the lone exception being 2 out RISP and every single one is better than "Mr. Clutch" Derek Jeter's best clutch OPS of .865.

2. What the hell does that mean? I have never seen ARod fail to run out a ball or take a play off in the field or give up an out by doing something stupid, he has given away the same amount of outs by bunting in his career as Jeter did in the 2004 season, and he has wasted less outs being caught stealing despite stealing more career bases.

3. This still makes no sense. He's on the Yankees. He's a Yankee, and he appear to live the NY lifestyle. Get over it.

4. He definitely likes chasing records, but to say he doesn't care about winning is just stupid. No one likes to lose and I guarantee he isn't accustomed to it. His teams have gone 1068-967 in his career for a .525 winning percentage despite being on some godawful Texas teams.

5. Another thing that can't be measured and doesn't really have a definition, but if not playing with heart means not running into outs or making the highlight reel with flashy plays, then I have no problem with guys who lack heart. They seem to be pretty good at baseball.

6. Ah the favorite for Yankee's fans. This is mostly due to his 1 for 14 with no walks and no extra base hits against the Tigers in 2006, but he was pretty good in 2004 against Boston, and in 2007 against Cleveland, both series where Jeter wasn't. In fact, career playoff OPS: Rodriguez: .844, Jeter: .846. Almost dead even. Jeter had almost as bad a series against the Indians last year as ARod had against the Tigers the year before, but did you hear one person blame Jeter for the loss? No, but you did hear people blame Alex who was considerably better.

The truth is that other than taking the huge contract and generally coming off as a douchebag in his interviews and his private life, the only crime Rodriguez committed was coming to the Yankees when he did. Jeter, Rivera, and Posada, the three players most often associated with the Yankee dynasty were not the players most responsible. That would be David Cone, Andy Pettitte, Orlando Hernandez, David Wells, and maybe Roger Clemens. The first 3 were all great big game postseason pitchers and their stats speak for themselves as their teams have gone a combined 42-13. Wells and Clemens were very effective during their playoff runs with the Yankees. This is something that the endless supply of starters since: Kevin Brown, Jeff Weaver, Javier Vazquez, Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, Jose Contreras etc. were unable to do with with the Empire. None of this is Alex's fault, nor were the successes the result of Jeter.

I guarantee you that if Rodriguez had been the shortstops on those 4 teams, they would have won at least 4 titles as they were exorbitantly better than the competition in every one except 1996 a year a young Alex out OPSed a young Derek by 245 points. And they may have won in 2001 in one of the closest series I can recall where Jeter, despite the fact that he was dubbed Mr. November, absolutely disappeared going 4 for 27 with no walks.

Alex Rodriguez, despite the fact that he is a much, MUCH better player than Jeter has gotten a raw deal in New York due to the face that he showed up right around the same time that the dynasty ended and has been unfairly blamed for the lack of postseason success since he arrived. The blame has continued this year when despite the fact that he has been BY FAR their best player all year, Rodriguez is still in some circles blamed for the Yankees missing the playoffs for the first time since 1993. They conveniently overlook the fact that Jeter has had his worst season as a pro.

I'm sorry, but given the choice between the two of them in any situation, I'll take Rodriguez any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Did Cleveland Throw in the Towel too Early?

Heading into 2008, the Indians were coming off a season where they won 96 games and took a 3-1 in the ALCS 1 game from going to the World Series when their two Cy Young candidates unraveled and they bowed to Boston in 7. They were strong favorites to repeat in the central (apart from the few delusional people who overlooked the Tiger's massive holes), and many saw them as a World Series contender once again. And why not? They seemed to have all the pieces to the puzzle. Well injuries and a bad bullpen quickly dashed the illusions of grandeur that this team held on opening day, and on July 7th, they effectively gave up when they dealt free agent to be Cy Young winner CC Sabathia to the Brewers. On the day of the trade, they sat at 37-51, in last place in the AL Central and 14 games behind the division leading White Sox. Casey Blake and Paul Byrd, two productive players for the Tribe the past few years would soon follow CC to greener pastures.

Well, here we are 10 weeks later and the Indians sit at 75-77 in 3rd place in the division, 9.5 games behind the Sox. Was Sabathia dead weight? Hardly. All he has done since the trade is absolutely dominate the NL to the tune of 9-1 with a 1.82 ERA, a 1.03 WHIP, 6 CGs and 3 shutouts in 14 starts. Put his NL stats together with his AL stats and he has been the second best pitcher in the big leagues coincidentally behind the Indians Cliff Lee.

So let me get this straight: The Indians dealt the second best pitcher in all of baseball as well as two of their regulars, and they are 4.5 games closer to first, and 12 games closer to .500? Yep.

The Tribe has gone on an absolute tear since the trade going 38-26 one of the best records in the league during that stretch. Great second halves by Lee, Jhonny Peralta, Shin-Soo Choo, Asdrubal Cabrera, Kelly Shoppach, and continued success by the best player in the AL this year, Grady Sizemore, has led the improbable run. Shoppach and Choo have been particularly impressive, OPSing over 1.000 since the break versus in the mid .700 prior. Cabrera has also rebounded in a big way with a nice line of .308 /.389/.462 up from his dreadful first half of .184/.282/.247. The team has also gotten a boost from the returns of Fausto Carmona, Victor Martinez, and Travis Hafner though neither the return time nor the boost has been as good as expected.

What if the Tribe had held on to Sabathia, Blake and Byrd? While its unlikely that everything would have fallen into place as well as it has, lets just say that it did. Lets remove the 13 disastrous starts from Zach Jackson, Matt Ginter, and Bryan Bullington as well as two from Jeremy Sowers and replace them with CC's 14 NL starts. This is clearly not apples to apples, but bear with me.

Tribe's record in these 14 starts: 4-10. ERA in these starts: 6.67. Let's say that Sabathia would likely have won any game where 4 runs or more were scored and half of the games with 2 or 3 runs. This bumps the record to: 10-4 in those games and improves the teams record to 81-71 which would put them 1 game behind the Twins and 3.5 behind the Sox for the division. Factor in that one of the extra Sabathia wins would likely have come against the Sox puts them tied with the Twinkies at 2.5 game. Just one extra win from Byrd puts them just 1.5 back with two Cy Young candidates, just about the whole team in tow, and playing their best baseball of the year. All of this seems well within the realm of possibility.

That final series in Chicago next week would start to look pretty damn exciting especially since Lee and Sabathia would be starting the first two games, and Carlos Quentin is out.

Then again who could possibly have seen this coming. Even with Sabathia it might not have happened, and LaPorta could turn into the next great Cleveland hitter and make everyone forget about Sabathia. All the same, it would be nice to still be in the playoff picture.

Why don't we just rename the MVP the PWBAASOACT

Lets drop the MVP award. Seriously. The Cy Young goes to the best pitcher, and while it's often debated who the best pitcher is, the meaning of the award itself is not questioned. The MVP should be the same way. It should go to the best player in each league. This will almost always be the position player who has the best season. In rare cases, a pitcher may be so dominant or there may not be a clear cut best position player. In those cases, like with Cliff Lee in 2008, Pedro Martinez in 2000, and Greg Maddux in 1995, it would be ok to award the distinction to a pitcher.

All this makes sense to me, and it seems pretty clear cut. I don't why writers get so hung up on the valuable part. Why would there be an award for being the best player on a contending team, or as it seems, especially in the national league this season, the player with the best august and September on a contending team (PWBAASOACT). How else do you explain the suggested candidates: CC Sabathia, Manny Ramirez, Ryan Howard, and Carlos Delgado? Every single one of those guys either sucked or did not play in the league during the first half. It's a 6 month season and it should go to the player who had a 6 month season. The ridiculous arguments for each:

Sabathia:
Has been the most dominating pitcher in the league since his arrival, and his arrival has coincided with the Brewers rise in the standings.

First of all, Sabathia has been terrific, but Tim Lincecum has been just as good in the second half and he has pitch and pitched well the whole year. Also, you can't tell me that CC has added more wins to the Brewers than Ben Sheets or Ryan Braun both of whom have been good and at times great since the season started.

Ramirez:
He has been the CC Sabathia of hitters since his arrival, and it has coincided with the Dodgers rise despite me criticizing the trade.

Like Sabathia, Ramirez has been almost equaled by Albert Pujols, a man who has also been that good since day 1. Eithier and Billingsley are bigger reasons why the Dodgers are where they are. Also as Gammons has found, Ramirez sparked the Dodgers to play better more than invigorating their offense, "In Ramirez's first 40 games, the Dodgers had a run differential of plus-22 and averaged 4.55 runs per game, as opposed to 4.43 through July 31....It's hard to talk about the MVP Award for Manny when the team that paid the Dodgers to take Ramirez is 27-13 without him through Sunday and have seen their runs per game increase from 4.94 at the time of the deal to 6.22 since." Could not have said it better myself.

Delgado:
Delgado took a 3rd place team that was going nowhere and made them into a contender not simply by the numbers. He lifted many of his teammates play, leading by example.

Whatever that means. He had a good but not great second half: .289/.374/598 with lots of homers and lots of RBIs, too bad his first half of .248/.328/.455 counts! Getting that kind of production from a 1st baseman is a big reason why the Mets were a 3rd place team to begin with. Wright, Beltran, Reyes and Santana were all more important to the Mets this season.

Howard:
Perhaps the worse case out of all of them, Howard's is similar to Delgado without quite as bad a first half or quite as good a second half. They have almost identical YTD lines of .263/.345/.508 for Delgado vs. .249/.335/.537 for Howard. The difference is Howard leads in the all important (not important) counting stats of home runs and RBIs. He is also about to be the first man to strikeout 200 times in a season.

I could spend all day discussing why counting stats (particularly RBIs and saves) as bad indicators of performance, but I'll skip it for now and go to more relevant arguments. Howard plays in one of the best hitters parks in all of baseball and it shows, he has OPSed 72 points higher at home than on the road. He has also done almost all of his damage against right handers OPSing 232 points higher against them than against lefties. Finally, like the others, there are better candidates on his own team: Burrell, Utley, Hamels, and even Werth. All of whom carried the Phils to a great first half while Howard was trying to start his own personal hurricane with the avalanche of whiffs he put up. Pujols is vastly superior to Howard in every way. If he were playing on the Phillies in Citizens Bank, he'd have more homers, more RBIs and better stats than the amazing ones he currently has. And he may be spending October golfing this year, but he still has won more world series rings than Howard has won playoff games and it remains to be seen if that will change anytime soon.

The New York Yankees: Baseball's Version of the US Economy

As the Yankees finish off their first Octoberless season since 1994, people keep asking, "What went wrong." To me that's a question with a fairly obvious answer: The Yankees were a sinking ship long before this year.

In reality, the Yankee ship has been sinking since their last World Series victory way back in 2000 which leads me to draw several similarities to the US economy:

1. They were both power houses that had been strong throughout the 20th century and peaked as recently as the mid to late 1990s.
2. They both began to deteriorate in 2001.
3. Despite rises and falls, they both have not been the same since.
4. There have been numerous attempts for a quick fix rather than the long rebuilding process that is inevitable at this point.
5. It's going to get worse before it gets better.
6. The people running the show don't understand any of this.

The Yankees are a very old team and have been for quite some time. Going into this year, they had one star player still in his prime: Alex Rodriguez. Strangely this is the player most often blamed for the Yankees problems although he without question has kept them respectable in a year where almost nothing went right. The next closest thing to a star is Wang and while he is a good pitcher, he is not the kind of guy you want to build a staff around.

Most of the rest of the guys: Jeter, Rivera, Posada, Mussina, Giambi, Abreu, Damon, and Matsui are old, past their prime, and waaaaaaaaaaay overpaid. Some of the others: Cabrera, Cano, Kennedy, Hughes, and Joba were too young and not ready to step into everyday roles. It is unsure if any of them will ever be stars.

This leaves Yankee management in a tight spot entering their new stadium in 2009. They have a fanbase that demands winning who will have just gone through the longest winter in over a decade, a fan base that will demand changes every day starting last month. The team has a lot of money coming off the books with: Musssina, Giambi, Abreu, Pettitte, Pavano, and Ivan Rodriguez all set to be free agents at seasons end. Of those only Mussina, Pettitte, and maybe Abreu figure to be invited back, all be it at much lower rates. The Yankees will still have Jeter, Rodriguez, Damon, Matsui, Posada, Rivera, Cano, and Wang, among others, owed somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 mil, giving them about $50-$60 mill to spend on free agents, and a whole crapload of needs. Names thrown out as possibly heading to NY are: Sabathia, Texeira, Sheets, Ramirez, Ordonez, and AJ Burnett. Sabathia has said he doesn't want to play in New York, Ramirez and Ordonez are getting old and AJ Burnett seems like a disaster waiting to happen which leaves Sheets and Tex whom I think would be good fits. They will cost between $30-$40 mil annually which still leaves the team with 2/5 of a rotation and glaring holes in the outfield as well as the lineup. Even bringing back Mussina, Abreu, and Pettitte might not fix everything. It might make the Yanks relevant next year, but their problems run much deeper.

Boston and Tampa Bay are loaded for the long haul. Even with a complete makeover in the offseason, the Yankees cannot catch up to the surplus of talent owned by these two franchises. Jeter, Rivera, and Posada are old and past their primes, but all three will be allowed to stay with the team until they retire, as they should, but still not a recipe for success. Rivera shows no signs of slowing down as he has enjoyed perhaps his finest season. The other two are a different story as they appear to be in decline. It is likely that Posada will not be able to catch much longer and will be relegated to DH duties which will dramatically decrease his value. Jeter on the other hand might be done. His range, which was never very good, has been decreasing for years, making him a liability in the field. His fielding could be tolerated when he was still one of the best hitting shortstops in the AL, this year however, he wasn't and there are no signs that he will ever be again.

It could be a very long next five years for the Yankees as well as the US economy. Both consider themselves to be the best in the world, which may have been true for the 20th century, but the twenty first is a different story and both might find themselves taking a backseat for quite some time.

Seriously what could possibly be gained here?

You're the San Francisco Giants. You have the best pitcher in baseball under the age of 25, and you've been out of contention since March. You save his arm right?

Wrong.

I have to give a big Why would you do that? shoutout to the Giants who sent NL Cy Young front runner the 24 year old Tim Lincecum out there for 138 pitches last night. I understand he was pitching a shutout and he's about the only guy the fans come to watch, but they were up 7-0 going into the 9th so the win was secure and they have nothing to gain in the standings at this point in the season.

Look, Lincecum at 24 is already one of the top 5 pitchers in baseball and he figures to be the centerpiece in the Giants rebuilding process despite the fact that they almost traded him to Toronto last offseason (imagine that rotation for a second). All the more reason to save his young arm for when your team might actually be in contention. Then again, they are so bad that it might not happen while Lincecum is still there.

The Giants don't seem to care. Tim has thrown over 100 pitches in 24 of his 30 starts including 5 over 120. Why don't they just call Dr. James Andrews and make TJ reservations?

I got one right

While the vast majority of my predictions have gone to hell, I got some stuff right like as of right now the entire NL Central. But the one I am most proud of is my sleeper pick of Tampa Bay. Here's what I wrote back in March:

Tampa Bay
Sooner or later all those #1 picks are going to pan out and I think it's this year. Pena, Crawford, Upton, and Longoria will be an amazing lineup and if they can get Balldelli to stay in one piece, it's even better. The pitching is turning around too with Kazmir, Shields, and Garza with even more waiting in the minors. It's probably a stretch for this team to contend this year, but Boston and New York better watch out in '09 and '10.

They surprised even me with how good they played this year, and Boston and New York could be in for a very long next 5 years in the murderous AL East. Man, it really sucks to be the Orioles.

Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, and the land of redemption

I have to admit, I never really liked Cliff Lee the pitcher before this year. Even when he pitched well in 2005, it always seemed like trouble was right around the corner, and that Lee was escaping big innings rather than pitching out of jams. In 2006, it was worse, and in 2007, it was so bad that a guy who had finished 4th in the Cy Young voting in 2005 was demoted to AAA for most of the year.

But something happened this offseason: instead of waiting to get beat and hoping to escape Lee began to attack hitters and force them to hit his pitch. He took what was pretty good stuff and decided to trust it, pounding the strike zone, getting ahead of hitters and forcing them to hit his almost unhittable breaking pitches. In 2004, Lee walked 81 batters in 179 innings, in 2005 it was 52 in 202 innings, last year it was 36 in 97.1 innings. This year however he has walked 28 in 210 innings. Lee will probably make 3 more starts this season so he will probably pitch beween 230 and 240 innings, and there is a very good chance to walk fewer batters this year than last year. Lee leads the majors in walks per 9 with an outstanding 1.2.

His strikeout numbers have not suffered as they are among the best of his career, he has not become more hittable as he is having his best year in H/9, and he has not given up the long ball as he is first in the majors in HR/9. Perhaps the best statistic at measuring a pitchers command is K/BB yet another statistic in which Lee leads the majors. In short he has been the man.

Lee came out of the gate absolutely on fire posting a 0.61 ERA in April, at the time I thought there was no chance of a whole season of this, and I was right, however he has not slowed down much. I watched a few of Lee's April starts and he looked like he was for real. The hitters were always behind in the count and chasing his breaking ball that none of them could hit. Lee also seemed to really bear down when he was in a jam and often escape unscathed. All Lee's numbers looked good, and the numbers that indicate future success: K/BB, BB/9, HR/9, WHIP, looked even better. I began to think that maybe his great start wasn't a fluke. As it turned out, I was right on the money.

As the season went on and Lee kept dominating, the team seemed different during his starts than they did for the other pitchers. When Lee is on the mound, they know they're going to win. They know that if they get him 4 or 5 runs, the game is over. The man has been an almost automatic 7+ innings with 3 or less runs. Even in his bad starts of which he's really only had 3, he gives his team at least 5 innings.


Over in the other league another one of my favorite pitchers has also enjoyed a great resurgence. Since coming into the league, Roy Oswalt has been almost automatic for 15 wins, 220 innings, and an ERA around 3.00 but in the first half of 2008, it looked like it might be coming to an end for the little guy from Mississippi. He got absolutely shelled in April and May, and despite having a pretty solid June, he entered the all star break with an ERA of 4.56 and was getting kicked around in July before an injury forced him to the DL.

Ever since he retured, he has been back to his old self, maybe better. Since the break, he's 8-1 with a 1.94 ERA, 2 shutouts, and 50 hits in 74 innings. August was one of the best months of his career and he has carried it into September a month where he has allowed 13 runners in 26 innings and no runs. He is a darkhorse candidate for the Cy Young now, a distinction that seemed impossible 3 months ago. The Cy Young talk is probably a bit of a stretch, but thanks to Ike, he will likely get at least 4 more starts, if he is great in all of them, he could be 19-9 with an ERA in the low 3s which will be much like his previous 5 top 5 Cy Young finishes.

I guess I shouldn't be that surprised that this nutorious second half stud has turned it up a notch, especially with his team back in the race. For his career, he is 65-19 with a 2.87 ERA and a .667 OPS against. And this is his best month for his career, he is 26-7 with a 2.48 ERA.

The really interesting thing is this: Houston is currently 3 back of Milwaukee for the wild card. They will probably get the whole weekend off due to Ike, and Roy-O will be back pitching Tuesday. The rest of the way they play Florida, Pittsburgh, Cincinatti, and Atlanta, teams that are a combined 56 games under .500. At least part of the series with the Cubs will likely be made up after the conclusion of the regular season at which point the Cubs will probably have clinched home field and have nothing to play for. So Houston may be playing a 4A or even a 3A team with the playoffs on the line.

Or how about this: a tie with the Brewers for the wild card, and a 1 game playoff with CC Sabathia against Roy Oswalt. I'll be skipping work for that.

Finally, with all this talk of Delgado for MVP because he "led the Mets resurgence" or some such garbage, why not a Roy-O for MVP case since he has been at the forefront of the Astros run? That's stupid, I know, but if that's your criteria for what makes a player valuable, you have to consider it.

Playing the game the right way?

Maybe its just because I've read more baseball articles this year than ever before, but it seems like the compliment "(they/he/she) plays the game the right way" is being over used at an all time high. I was sent over the top by reading Andre Dawson's baseball reference page last night where the sponsor basically claims that Andre should be in the Hall because he played the game the right way.

The comment is used to explain the unlikely season of the Twins and Angels all the time as well as to compliment inferior players like David Eckstein who are 'scrappy' or 'play with heart'.

Teams whose success is often explained because they "play the game the right way: Twins, Angels, Rays, and sometimes White Sox.

Real reasons these teams are successful: Pitching. They rank 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th in the AL in runs allowed. They also rank 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th in the AL in run differential. In case you were wondering, the Angels are 6th. The Angels are touted as the playoff favorites and they have a worse team than the one that got crushed by Josh Beckett and co. in the ALDS last year.

Examples given on how these teams play the right way:

1. They are aggressive on the bases.
Translation, they run into outs. Tampa and TLAAOA are 1-2 in the AL in stolen bases, but Boston is 3rd and Boston steals with a much higher success rate.

2. They bunt and play small ball.
Translation, they waste outs. TLAAOA are 9th in the AL in R/G, and they are 11th in OBP. They somehow have score more runs than the less out-liberal Rays and the powerless Jays who are both better teams.

Notice, you never hear of pitchers playing the game the right way. That's because it's easier for people who don't know how to read statistics to explain pitchers success: the best pitchers usually have the best ERAs and the best W-L records, although there are exceptions in both cases.

You know what? You can have a team of David Eckstiens and Darrin Erstads, and I'll take a whole buch of guys who play the game the wrong way:
Adam Dunn, Manny Ramirez, JD Drew, Jhonny Peralta, Milton Bradley, ARod, Dan Uggla, etc.

Do Idiots Grow on Trees?

XM 175 - all baseball all the time. Great, right? Wrong.

They have 24 hours of baseball to cover and unfortunately, there are not 24 hours worth of good radio hosts that have jobs.

The middle of the afternoons is usually covered by the two headed monster of Dibble and Kennedy, two guys so bad they make John Kruk look like Rob Neyer. Dibble was out for the day (thank god) and was replaced by Chuck Wilson. I thought this was a sure fire upgrade. I was wrong.

We're at the time of year when awards are on the agenda every day. My current feelings on the topic are as follows: AL MVP: Pedroia or Sizemore, NL MVP and this is an absolute no doubt about it: Albert Pujols, AL CY Cliff Lee and its not close, NL CY: Lincecum but it could change.

The AL MVP could decide itself is Pedroia continues his torrid second half. The AL Cy is a two horse race with Lee the clear favorite with 3 weeks to play. Wilson understands this, he just doesn't understand who the other horse is. "I think a lot of voters are going to look at Matsuzaka's record and vote for him," Wilson said. Whaaa???

Now I could see an argument made for Halladay who leads the league in WHIP, innings, and has 9 complete games. Some dumbass who doesn't understand stats will probably vote for a guy who is the 4th best closer in the AL this year, but will set a record in the single stupidest statistic there is. But, If someone were to vote for Dice-K it would defy all logic and force us to ask, "Why would you do that!?"

Lee has 4 more stars, 45 more innings, 4 less earned runs, less walks, less homers allowed, less hit batsman, less wild pitches, more strikeouts, more wins, a lower ERA, a lower WHIP, more complete games, more shutouts, more quality starts, a higher quality start percentage, a higher winning percentage, a higher team winning percentage in his starts, and plays for a team with a much worse offense. Where exactly is the Matsuzaka argument in all that? It doesn't exist.

They go on to address the V in MVP and say that unless a player is worlds better than everyone else, he should have to at least be in the race to be considered. I'll buy that as the pressure of a pennant race can wear on a guy, so Pedroia would be a great MVP choice. Where they blew their argument was when they listed the example of Andre Dawson with the last place Cubs in 1987. A season where he posted an incredible .328 OBP and 130 OPS+. Jack Clark who was a member of the team that won the pennant posted a ,459 OBP, a 176 OPS+, and a .597 slugging, all of which led the league. So citing a guy who was an inferior player on an inferior team really doesn't make any sense at all.

They finished it off by listing Carlos Delgado as an MVP candidate. That's just stupid and would again call for a why would you do that? He's about the 5th most valuable player on his own team, he is vastly inferior to Pujols in any metric you pick, and his team, despite having a lot more talent and a much higher payroll is only 3 games better than Albert's. I guess he's the MVP because he chose to play in the weaker NL East. There is no argument you can make that Delgado is more valuable than Pujols, or Berkman for that matter.

A Team for All Time

One of my favorite things about baseball is looking as statistics. I think the thing that separates baseball from all other sports is the massive amount of statistics that can be used in all manner of ways to debate who the best players are. Sure you can look at stats in basketball, football, and hockey, but these are much more influenced by uncontrollable elements than baseball statistics. Example: Tom Brady put up good numbers from day 1, but it wasn't until Randy Moss arrived on the scene that he put himself into the record books. Was Brady just much better last year than he had been in the past or was Moss just a tremendous upgrade from his previous receivers? I'm leaning towards the latter. I however can say with 100% certainty that Cliff Lee has played better this year than he ever has in his career.

So I thought who has had the best years in the history of baseball? And why not take those best years and assemble a team of superstar seasons? There must be a few rules of course:
1. Only one season per player can be used (so that we don't have a lineup composed entirely of 1 player)
2. There must be 15 position players, and 10 pitchers (at least 3 relievers) and each position must have at least two players who could conceivably have played the position during the selected year.
3. Defense counts, but it is much harder to measure statistically, so it will be a secondary consideration.
4. Seasons will be judged based mostly on comparison to peers. Therefore OPS+ and ERA+ will be weighted heavily.
5. All players must have at least qualified for the batting title, and all pitchers with the exception of relievers must have qualified for the ERA title.
6. There will be no designated hitter, but pitchers hitting will not be considered since many pitchers since the inception of the DH did not have to.
7. No "steroid" guys will be considered. This includes anyone who has been suspended for use, appeared in the Mitchell Report, or appeared in one of Jose's books.

That being said, I present the greatest team ever assembled:

The Starting lineup

C. Johnny Bench - 1972
Here's where defense makes a difference. Piazza's 1997 is the greatest ever for a catcher, but Bench is widely regarded as the greatest catcher in history, oh and he hit .270/.379/.541 with 40 homers, 166 OPS+, 100 walks, and only 84 strikeouts. Pretty good for a catcher best known for his defense.

1B. Jimmie Foxx - 1932
Gehrig 1927 or 1934 would be a good choice, but Foxx in 1932 is the one I picked a nice line of .364/.469/.749 for an OPS+ of 205. Plus he's a right handed hitter and I have this feeling that there will be a lot of lefties in this lineup.

2B. Rogers Hornsby - 1924
There really was no choice here, the only question was which of his seasons to pick. He hit with more power in others, but its hard to say no to .424/.507/.696 for a 220 OPS+ with 89 walks, and only 32 Ks. He'll likely bat 1st or second and drive opposing pitchers crazy by being on base all the time.

3B. George Brett - 1980
The first real tough choice in what will be a series of tough ones. Brett only played 117 games that year, but absolutely cleaned up when he did to the tune of .390/.454/.664 in addition to playing great defense. So apologies to Schmidt, Boggs, and Rodriguez, Brett gets the starting spot.

SS. Honus Wagner - 1908
Hard to believe that in 100 years, no one has topped this, but the Flying Dutchman put together a line of .354/.415/.542 in the dead ball era for a 205 OPS+. For the next 90 years or so, shortstops became fielding specialists who usually couldn't hit for shit, but a resurgence in the mid 1990s led by ARod, Jeter, and Nomar put shortstops back into the middle of the order. Still none ever had a year where they were that much better than their peers. And while Hanley Ramirez could probably put up the offense to challenge it in a few years, he might be doing it as a second or third baseman base on his defensive skills, or lack thereof.

LF. Ted Williams - 1941
After second, the three outfield postions were the easiest to pick. None were close, and thankfully all three players played a different spot in the outfield. Ted's 1941 season is something incredible that will probably never be topped, and IMO is the greatest ever for as hitter. A line of .406/.553/.735 for an OPS+ of 235, 147 walks, only 27 strikeouts. 27! Ryan Howard strikes out 27 times in three weeks. The closest thing to Ted since Ted is Pujols, and even he can't come close to this kind of production. The amazing thing is Teddy lost the MVP to DiMaggio this year because it also happend to be the year of the streak.

CF. Mickey Mantle - 1957
If Ted's 1941 is the greatest ever for a hitter, Mantle's 1957 is probably the greatest ever all around. 146 75 .365/.512/.665 OPS+ of 223, 146 walks to 75 ks, and 15 steals while being caught only 3 times. Great hitter, baserunner, and fielder. Probably one of the top 5 talents in the history of the game.

RF. Babe Ruth - 1921
The hardest part here was picking the season. Claims can be made for '20, '23, and '27, but I'll take '21 when the Babe launched the Yankee dynasty with a line of .378/.512/.846, 59 bombs and an OPS+ of 239.

Bench
C. Mike Piazza - 1997
The best hitting year for a catcher ever .362/.431/.638, 185 OPS+, 40 bombs, and better defense than he gets credit for.

IF. Joe Morgan - 1976
As much as Joe would hate to admit it, he was a moneyball player this year. A line of .320/.444/.576 OPS+ of 187, tons of walks, hardly any strikeouts, and a great stolen base percentage.

IF. Alex Rodriguez - 2000
The lone postion player from this century had better years but this was his best as a shortstop which matters. An impressive line of .316/.420/.606 for a 162 OPS+, decent defense, and great baserunning.

IF. Lou Gehrig - 1927
.373/.474/.765, 221 OPS+ I once heard some idiot talking about following a good act: "There are certain things you just don't do, you don't bat after Babe Ruth..." Well this guy did, and at least for this year was just as good if not better.

OF. Ty Cobb - 1912
.409/.456/.584 , 200 OPS+. A .400 hitter on the bench - wow. He'll be a great pinch hitter or pinch runner in the late innings.

OF. Stan Musial - 1948
One of the most underrated players in history, and this was his best year: .376/.450/.702, 200 OPS+, 79 walks, 34 ks. Ted Williams light.

OF. Carl Yastrzemski - 1967
The player to win the triple crown did it with one of the greatest seasons ever. His line of .326/.418/.622 is one of the worst on the team, but when you factor in the fact that he did it at a time when pitchers ruled the league, it ranks right up there with all the other members of the team as shown by his 193 OPS plus. Yaz would rank a lot higher on the all time lists had his debut come 10 years ealier or 10 years later so his peak would have come at a more hitter friendly time.

The Pitchers

SP1. Pedro Martinez - 2000
His 0.75 WHIP is the lowest ever, his 291 ERA+ is 2nd and the best since the 1800s, and he did it at the absolute height of the steroid era. With great velocity, sick movement, and pinpoint control, Pedro at his peak was the best there has ever been.

SP2. Greg Maddux - 1995
A tough choice between the two strike shortened seasons that were coincidentally the peak of Maddux's career, but a 0.81 WHIP, 262 ERA+, 181 strikeouts and only 23 walks - sick.

SP3. Steve Carlton - 1972
27-10 for a team that won less than 60 games, 41 starts, 346 innings, 1.97 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, and only 17 homers in all those innings. Carlton was an absolute horse who dominated the hell out of the league that year.

SP4. Christy Matthewson - 1909
25-6, 0.83 WHIP, 1.14 ERA, 222 ERA+ his best season. It of course pales in comparison to his incredible 3 shutout performance in the 1905 world series.

SP5. Walter Johnson - 1913
By raw numbers this is probably the best season ever. 36-7, 1.14 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, 259 ERA+, and 11 shutouts. Wow.

SP6. Sandy Koufax - 1965
The only reason he's this low is the era in which he pitched. But he absolutely dominated that era and probably should have won 30 games at least once. 26-8, 0.86 WHIP, 2.04 ERA, a then record 382 strikeouts, and an absolutely unhittable curve. Perhaps the best pitch anyone ever possesed .

SP7. Randy Johnson - 2001
This was a tough choice, but Randy was the best pitcher not on the list and pitching at the height of the steroid era puts him ahead of Guidry, Gooden, Gibson, and others whose name doesn't start with a G. 372 strikouts in only 250 innings for 13.4 k/9 - 1st all time, 188 ERA+, 1.00 WHIP. One more start and he'd probably have the strikeout record. Johnson also had a hell of a career, the master of the strikeout - more than 1 k/9 more than Nolan Ryan. It's too bad he didn't start sooner or he might have every major pitching record established after WWI.

RP1. Dennis Eckersley - 1990
0.61 ERA, 0.61 WHIP, 606 ERA+, 2 homers, 4 walks and 73 strikeouts in 73 innings. 18.25:1 K/BB ratio. Pinpoint control and still unhittable.

RP2. Willie Hernandez - 1984
What a relief pitcher should be. 80 games, 140 innings, 1.92 ERA, 204 ERA+, 0.94 WHIP.

RP3. Mariano Rivera - 2008
The year's not over, but barring a total collapse in September, this will be the best year for the sandman. As of now 0.68 WHIP, 1.43 ERA and 299 ERA+.

Now that is an incredible team.

As for a batting order, I'm thinking:
1. Wagner - SS
2. Hornsby - 2B
3. Williams - LF
4. Ruth - RF
5. Mantle - CF
6. Foxx - 1B
7. Brett - 3B
8. Bench - C
9. Pitcher

I think Wagner is the best candidate to leadoff with his speed, on base skills, and lack of power. But oh my god can you imagine facing that 2-7 part of the order? You can't walk anyone. You don't want to pitch to anyone. You just hope you can get through to face Bench and the pitcher without giving up the big inning.