Well, we’re half way through the season and although we couldn’t get Billy Crystal, we’re still going to go ahead with the first ever First Half Spurious Awards.
I have enlisted the help (if it can really be called that) of a couple of old friends who I worked with on the first ever British based baseball fan site (how’s that for alliteration) including one of the luminaries who put it together (Chris C) and Neil M who is one of the guys responsible for the 3,079 Miles to Fenway, 3,448 miles to Yankee Stadium blog (sadly the Yankee fan part of that duo) and might also be considered my arch-nemesis in most matters baseball.
We agreed on some things, were nowhere near agreeing on others but hey, we’re not sabretricians, we’re just fans and what would fandom be like if we didn’t disagree on...well…everything.
Its always interesting to see how certain people who follow certain teams tend to skew their opinions.
* Due to formatting issues which I'm probably not smart enough to sort out Neils nominations will be in blue, Chris in red and mine will be purple (I really need to learn how to do these things properly)
AL MVP : Brian Roberts, Bal; Manny Ramirez, Bos; Manny Ramirez, Bos
NL MVP : Albert Pujols, StL; Derrek Lee, ChC; Albert Pujols, Stl
AL Cy Award : Mariano Rivera, NYY Mark Buerhle, ChW Roy Halladay, Tor
NL Cy Award : Roger Clemens, Hou; Dontrelle Willis, Fla; Dontrelle Willis, Fla
AL Rookie Award : Chien-Ming Wang, NYY; Grady Sizemore, Cle; Grady Sizemore, Cle
NL Rookie Award : Jason Ellison, SF; Half the Braves line-up, Atl; Willy Taveras, Hou
AL Eck Award: Mariano Rivera, NYY; Mariano Rivera, NYY; Mariano Rivera, NYY
NL Eck Award : Jason Isringhausen, StL; Chad Cordero, Was; Brad Lidge, Hou
The Where the bloody hell did he
come from award for excellence out
of nowhere : Brian Roberts, Bal; Brian Roberts, Bal; Derrick Turnbow, Mil
The Award for a guy who probably
won't win any other award but deserves
something : Jesse Crain, Min; Bobby Abreu, Phi; Jesse Crain, Min
The Too Good For His Team Award : Carlos Lee, Mil; Jorge Cantu, TB; Rich Harden, Oak
Best Team : St Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, Chicago White Sox
Most Improved Team : Washington Nationals, Washington Nationals, Washington Nationals
The picks that stand out for me have to be Wang over Sizemore for the AL Rookie and Clemens over Willis for the Cy as Neil is a Yankee fan and also chairman of the ‘We Love Roger Clemens No Matter How Much of a Non-Team Player he is Committee’. Thankfully in both instances Chris had more sense but then he did go for Bobby Abreu over Crain in the ‘Unlikely to Win Any Awards’ award but then Phils fans always seem to feel their guys get overlooked.
All in all it’s the usual suspects that everyone knows about (although I already rated Brian Roberts which is why Tunbow gets a mention) with a few real splits in opinion. The AL Cy had three good names thrown into the hat that are all tough to really argue with, similarly with the NL Eck (much catchier I feel than the Rolaids Award).
I do feel for Carlos Lee being thrown into the Too Good For His Team category or, to be more accurate, The Brewers who I feel are a better team than Neil is giving them credit for and I might be doing the same for Oakland but then again, this is my blog and I’m allowed to do such things.
The NL Rookie was an interesting one with Neil admitting he had ‘no idea’ who to go for and I must admit there really is no standout first year guy (that I know of) and Chris might have made the best pick by nominating half the Braves roster.
No comments:
Post a Comment