SB Nation User Blog: Charlie

Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No. This is awesome.

Charlie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:18:10 -0000

Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No. This is awesome.

SB Nation N.L. MVP: Albert Pujols

Charlie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:01:19 -0000

St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols connects for a two-run home run in the in the third inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates in a game on Tuesday, April 7, 2009 in St. Louis.(AP Photo/Tom Gannam)

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No surprise there. Here are the full results (again, after the jump, because the charts don't fit):

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Pts
1	Albert Pujols	St. Louis Cardinals	31	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	434
2	Hanley Ramirez	Florida Marlins	-	6	8	11	2	1	2	-	-	-	220
3	Chase Utley	Philadelphia Phillies	-	7	11	2	3	1	-	1	-	1	192
4	Prince Fielder	Milwaukee Brewers	-	5	4	4	7	7	1	-	-	-	186
5	Troy Tulowitzki	Colorado Rockies	-	4	1	5	2	3	3	4	1	2	134
6	Tim Lincecum	San Francisco Giants	-	4	1	-	1	2	2	3	1	-	79
7	Ryan Howard	Philadelphia Phillies	-	4	-	1	4	1	-	-	3	1	79
8	Ryan Zimmerman	Washington Nationals	-	-	1	3	3	3	3	1	-	2	79
9	Adrian Gonzalez	San Diego Padres	-	-	1	-	3	3	2	4	3	4	71
10	Pablo Sandoval	San Francisco Giants	-	-	-	1	2	2	2	3	4	3	57
11	Matt Kemp	Los Angeles Dodgers	-	-	1	1	1	1	5	3	-	1	56
12	Ryan Braun	Milwaukee Brewers	-	-	2	-	-	2	2	1	1	-	39
13	Chris Carpenter	St. Louis Cardinals	-	-	-	-	2	1	1	-	1	2	25
14	Derrek Lee	Chicago Cubs	-	-	-	-	-	2	1	1	3	2	25
15	Andre Ethier	Los Angeles Dodgers	-	-	-	-	1	2	2	-	-	-	24
16	Adam Wainwright	St. Louis Cardinals	-	-	-	1	-	-	1	1	4	1	23
17	Javier Vazquez	Atlanta Braves	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	1	2	1	16
18	Matt Holliday	St. Louis Cardinals	-	-	1	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	12
19	Joey Votto	Cincinnati Reds	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	11
20	Mark Reynolds	Arizona Diamondbacks	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	1	2	10
21	Todd Helton	Colorado Rockies	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	7
22	Jayson Werth	Philadelphia Phillies	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1	6
23	Adam Dunn	Washington Nationals	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	3	5
24	Juan Pierre	Los Angeles Dodgers	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	4
25	Justin Upton	Arizona Diamondbacks	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	1	4
26	Raul Ibanez	Philadelphia Phillies	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	1	4
27	Ubaldo Jimenez	Colorado Rockies	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	1	4
28	Brian McCann	Atlanta Braves	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	4
29	Dan Haren	Arizona Diamondbacks	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	4
30	Michael Bourn	Houston Astros	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	3
31	Yadier Molina	St. Louis Cardinals	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	3
32	Nyjer Morgan	Washington Nationals	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1
33	Yunel Escobar	Atlanta Braves	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1

Notice the vote for Nyjer. I don't remember my ballot, but none of the unconventional votes from #21 onward were mine. Here are the results from the American League.

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Pts
1	Joe Mauer	Minnesota Twins	24	3	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	371
2	Ben Zobrist	Tampa Bay Rays	-	10	6	2	2	1	-	1	-	-	172
3	Mark Teixeira	New York Yankees	2	3	2	4	3	2	7	1	-	-	158
4	Derek Jeter	New York Yankees	1	5	3	4	4	2	1	1	2	1	157
5	Evan Longoria	Tampa Bay Rays	-	2	4	1	2	3	2	3	2	1	106
6	Zack Greinke	Kansas City Royals	2	3	2	1	1	-	2	-	-	-	92
7	Miguel Cabrera	Detroit Tigers	-	-	3	1	2	4	-	2	-	5	74
8	Kevin Youkilis	Boston Red Sox	-	2	-	-	1	3	1	8	1	-	69
9	Chone Figgins	Los Angeles Angels	-	-	-	3	4	1	-	1	3	1	60
10	Jason Bay	Boston Red Sox	-	1	-	4	2	-	-	1	-	2	54
11	Kendry Morales	Los Angeles Angels	-	-	4	-	-	1	-	-	1	-	39
12	Ichiro Suzuki	Seattle Mariners	-	-	1	-	2	-	1	2	2	3	37
13	Franklin Gutierrez	Seattle Mariners	-	-	-	1	1	1	3	-	1	2	34
14	Justin Verlander	Detroit Tigers	-	-	-	2	1	1	1	-	1	1	32
15	Felix Hernandez	Seattle Mariners	-	-	-	2	-	-	1	3	2	-	31
16	Jason Bartlett	Tampa Bay Rays	-	-	1	1	1	-	-	-	-	1	22
17	Alex Rodriguez	New York Yankees	-	-	1	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	18
18	Roy Halladay	Toronto Blue Jays	-	-	-	1	-	1	1	-	-	-	16
19	Adam Lind	Toronto Blue Jays	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	-	1	4	16
20	Dustin Pedroia	Boston Red Sox	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	4	1	13
21	Bobby Abreu	Los Angeles Angels	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	1	1	-	12
22	Aaron Hill	Toronto Blue Jays	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1	-	-	12
23	Mariano Rivera	New York Yankees	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	1	1	9
24	Torii Hunter	Los Angeles Angels	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	8
25	Brian Roberts	Baltimore Orioles	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	-	7
26	CC Sabathia	New York Yankees	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	1	-	6
27	Carl Crawford	Tampa Bay Rays	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1	6
28	J.D. Drew	Boston Red Sox	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	5
29	Jon Lester	Boston Red Sox	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	5
30	Jonathan Papelbon	Boston Red Sox	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	5
31	Robinson Cano	New York Yankees	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	5
32	Victor Martinez	Boston Red Sox	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	5
33	Michael Cuddyer	Minnesota Twins	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	4
34	Shin-Soo Choo	Cleveland Indians	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	4
35	Michael Young	Texas Rangers	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	3
36	Jacoby Ellsbury	Boston Red Sox	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	2
37	Jason Kubel	Minnesota Twins	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	2
38	Alex Gonzalez	Boston Red Sox	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1
39	Nick Markakis	Baltimore Orioles	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1

All the votes for Franklin Gutierrez are interesting, as are the votes above for Morgan and Michael Bourn. People loved their good defensive outfielders this year.

Pirates Release Yoslan Herrera, Jason Delaney, Others

Charlie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:47:27 -0000

Via Baseball America, the Pirates have released a number of failed prospects:

RHP Yoslan Herrera - The big prizewinner in Dave Littlefield's weird experiment with international talent. Most teams attempt to sign Latin American amateurs at a young age and move them through the farm system over a period of many years. But all that was way too slow-moving for a short-term thinker like Littlefield, who instead spent a couple million bucks on Herrera, a much older player, and got him to the big leagues within a couple years. Unfortunately, his limp 87-MPH fastball wasn't nearly good enough to complement his decent offspeed stuff, and now Herrera is gone after getting bombed in the bigs in 2008 and spending an uninspiring 2009 at Altoona and Indianapolis. By the way, check out this little anecdote about Herrera by WTM:

Surprised about Herrera, too, because he made some progress this year, although at his age there's no way he's going to be a major league pitcher. There might have been more going on with him. I was at a DH in Bowie this year and Herrera was up in the stands in the second game after pitching in the first game. He was rooting loudly for Bowie, so I wondered what was going on.

RHP Tyler Herron - The Pirates signed Herron, a former top draft pick of the Cardinals, after St. Louis surprisingly released him earlier in 2009. He didn't pitch particularly well for Altoona, and his stuff there apparently was terrible. But he still has that first-round pedigree, he hasn't been tried much as a reliever, and he's not old; it's a little bit weird that he's now been released by two organizations. It could be that there's some personal thing going on here.

1B Kent Sakamoto

3B Eddie Prasch - Prasch was Littlefield's third-round pick in his hideous 2004 draft. Prasch showed some on-base skills as he crawled through the minors, but his power never developed.

3B Bobby Spain

3B Brett Willemburg

OF Butch Biela - This is a weird one. Biela hit very well as an 18-year-old in 2007, then got by with a .342 OBP at State College in 2008. The Pirates thought enough of him to start him at West Virginia in 2009, but he wound up with back with the Spikes, not hitting at all.

OF Justin Byler

OF Jason Delaney - Delaney, the Bucs' 12th-round pick in '05, showed flashes of real hitting ability in the minors, but since he was almost 23 when he was drafted, he was always very old for his levels. He doesn't have much defensive value and he never developed much home run power, and now he's 27.

OF Jared Keel - Keel has always hit well in the minors, but like Delaney he has always been a bit old for his levels. Also, as a 31st-round pick, the Bucs have probably never viewed him as much more than an organizational player; if they liked him they probably would have sent him to Altoona last year, given that he hit 20 homers at Lynchburg in 2008.

The Pirates have also granted free agency to Denny Bautista.

SB Nation N.L. Cy Young: Tim Lincecum

Charlie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:36:53 -0000

More photos » by Jeff Chiu - AP

San Francisco Giants' Tim Lincecum pitches to the Oakland Athletics in the first inning of a game in San Francisco, Friday, June 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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Tim Lincecum wins SB Nation's NL Cy Young award. Here are the results:

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Tim Lincecum	San Francisco Giants	18	13	-	129
2	Chris Carpenter	St. Louis Cardinals	9	4	7	64
3	Adam Wainwright	St. Louis Cardinals	4	4	10	42
4	Javier Vazquez	Atlanta Braves	-	5	7	22
5	Dan Haren	Arizona Diamondbacks	-	3	4	13
6	Ubaldo Jimenez	Colorado Rockies	-	1	1	4
7	Cliff Lee	Philadephia Phillies	-	-	1	1
8	Jair Jurrjens	Atlanta Braves	-	-	1	1

I'm pretty sure my ballot was Lincecum, Carpenter, Vazquez. It's hard to believe how quickly Lincecum has emerged as a perennial powerhouse. He could've been a Pirate, of course--the Pirates could have taken him but picked Brad Lincoln instead. But hindsight is always 20/20, and Lincecum was seen as a tremendously risky pitcher when he was drafted because of his size and high-effort delivery. Here's an article I wrote about Lincecum and Lincoln in 2007. Of all the things you can blame Dave Littlefield for, I don't think the fact that Lincecum isn't a Pirate is a particularly good one.

Anyway, here are the AL results:

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Zack Greinke	Kansas City Royals	28	1	-	143
2	Felix Hernandez	Seattle Mariners	-	17	6	57
3	Justin Verlander	Detroit Tigers	-	8	9	33
4	Roy Halladay	Toronto Blue Jays	1	2	11	22
5	C.C. Sabathia	New York Yankees	-	1	2	5
6	Jon Lester	Boston Red Sox	-	-	1	1

High-A Move to Bradenton Official

Charlie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:12:24 -0000

High-A Move to Bradenton Official

As per the mothership, the Pirates are officially moving their Class A+ team from Lynchburg to Bradenton.

Pirates Offered Matt Capps for J.J. Hardy

Charlie — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:07:24 -0000

More photos » by Pat Sullivan - AP

6 months ago: Milwaukee Brewers' J.J. Hardy connects for a fielder's choice single in the sixth inning against the Houston Astros in a baseball game Saturday, April 25, 2009 in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

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The Post-Gazette reports. This probably wouldn't have been a very appealing offer to the Brewers--they have Trevor Hoffman signed through 2010, with an option for 2011, and Capps was a complete mess all year. (It's theoretically possible the Bucs offered the deal before Hoffman signed his extension in October.) Also, Carlos Gomez, the outfielder they got for Hardy from the Twins, is still a high-upside player, even if there's a much better chance of him busting out completely than breaking out.

Still, this is interesting stuff. It still appears very likely that the Bucs' Opening Day shortstop will be Ronny Cedeno, simply because it won't be easy to upgrade on him in a cost-effective way, but it's not certain.

SB Nation NL Rookie of the Year: Tommy Hanson

Charlie — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:05:33 -0000

More photos » by John Bazemore - AP

Atlanta Braves starter Tommy Hanson works in the first inning of a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Friday, July 31, 2009, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

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Here are the results (after the jump because the charts don't quite work on the front page):

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Tommy Hanson	Atlanta Braves	9	9	6	78
2	J.A. Happ	Philadelphia Phillies	6	9	7	64
3	Andrew McCutchen	Pittsburgh Pirates	8	3	5	54
4	Chris Coghlan	Florida Marlins	7	5	4	54
5	Dexter Fowler	Colorado Rockies	-	3	1	10
6	Randy Wells	Chicago Cubs	-	-	6	6
7	Garrett Jones	Pittsburgh Pirates	1	-	-	5
8	Casey McGehee	Milwaukee Brewers	-	1	2	5
9	Seth Smith	Colorado Rockies	-	1	-	3

I voted Hanson, McCutchen, Happ. Long-term, I'm a bigger fan of McCutchen than any of them--actually, I'm not a big long-term believer in Hanson because I think he leaves the ball up too much--but his performance this year really was excellent in every way you'd hope for. Hanson also gets the edge over Happ because of better peripherals. Happ actually had a huge edge over Hanson in VORP (who had a very small edge over McCutchen) but I have to make a judgment call here and vote for the guy who was, in my view, really beating the opposition instead of the guy who pitched well but depended more on his defense.

Here are the AL results:

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Elvis Andrus	Texas Rangers	6	9	6	63
2	Andrew Bailey	Oakland Athletics	11	1	3	61
3	Jeff Niemann	Tampa Bay Rays	3	5	3	33
4	Rick Porcello	Detroit Tigers	2	7	2	33
5	Brett Anderson	Oakland Athletics	5	1	3	31
6	Gordon Beckham	Chicago White Sox	1	2	8	19
7	Nolan Reimold	Baltimore Orioles	1	-	1	6
8	Matt Wieters	Baltimore Orioles	-	1	3	6
9	Brad Bergesen	Baltimore Orioles	-	1	-	3
10	Ricky Romero	Toronto Blue Jays	-	1	-	3
11	Travis Snider	Toronto Blue Jays	-	1	-	3

Veal "An Entirely Different Pitcher" in AFL

Charlie — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:12:54 -0000

Veal "An Entirely Different Pitcher" in AFL

Baseball America cites a 95 MPH fastball, a "free and easy" delivery, and control improvements as the reasons why Donald Veal has been completely different in the Arizona Fall League.

I'm skeptical--baseball writers overreach a lot in their attempts to explain short stretches of good play--but articles this nice are always great to see.

SB Nation Manager of the Year: Jim Tracy?

Charlie — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:30:48 -0000

More photos » by Will Powers - AP

5 months ago: Colorado Rockies new manager Jim Tracy watches the action in the first inning against the San Diego Padres in a baseball game in Denver, Colo., Friday, May 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Will Powers)

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Here are SB Nation's Manager of the Year results for the NL:

Rk	Manager	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Jim Tracy	Colorado Rockies	24	1	2	125
2	Tony LaRussa	St. Louis Cardinals	3	7	10	46
3	Fredi Gonzalez	Florida Marlins	2	6	5	33
4	Joe Torre	Los Angeles Dodgers	-	9	2	29
5	Charlie Manuel	Philadelphia Phillies	-	3	5	14
6	Bruce Bochy	San Francisco Giants	1	1	1	9
7	Bobby Cox	Atlanta Braves	-	1	4	7
8	Bud Black	San Diego Padres	-	1	1	4
9	John Russell	Pittsburgh Pirates	-	1	-	3

There were, it appears, 30 total ballots cast; 27 of those ranked Jim Tracy in the top three. I was one of the three holdouts (and I believe that Vlad, who I put in charge of Bucs Dugout's other ballot, was one of the others). I find Manager of the Year balloting to be a pretty silly exercise, and the choice of Tracy illustrates why. Tracy is not an intelligent man; he exhibits no great tactical expertise; his players in Pittsburgh didn't seem to like him much; he's weirdly obsessed with the 2004 Dodgers; he blames his players for everything; he all but declared war on his boss, GM Paul DePodesta, when he was with Los Angeles. I see no evidence that he's a good manager--except that he took the helm just as the Rockies got hot this year. You can chalk that up to brilliant managing if you want, but brilliant managing seems well beyond a small, stupid man like Jim Tracy. I didn't vote for him this year, and I probably never will. Fredi Gonzalez was at the top of my ballot.

I have no idea who put John Russell second. It wasn't me.

Here are the American League results (for which NL bloggers didn't vote):

Rk	Manager	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Mike Scioscia	Los Angeles Angels	9	8	3	72
2	Ron Gardenhire	Minnesota Twins	9	5	1	61
3	Don Wakamatsu	Seattle Mariners	6	3	8	47
4	Joe Girardi	New York Yankees	2	4	2	24
5	Ron Washington	Texas Rangers	1	4	4	21
6	Terry Francona	Boston Red Sox	1	1	3	11
7	Jim Leyland	Detroit Tigers	-	2	4	10
8	Joe Maddon	Tampa Bay Rays	-	1	1	4
9	Ozzie Guillen	Chicago White Sox	-	-	1	1
10	Trey Hillman	Kansas City Royals	-	-	1	1

Danny Moskos Bombed in AFL Rising Stars Game

Charlie — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:28:15 -0000

First, the good news from last night's AFL Rising Stars game: Chase D'Arnaud and Jose Tabata both went 2-for-3. Neither of Tabata's hits left the infield, and the first of D'Arnaud's was a shallow fly that no one could get to, but Tabata looked good on the basepaths, and D'Arnaud's last hit was stung.

Daniel Moskos, though... the poor guy has nothing. The announcers said that the stadium gun had him as high as 92, but they also said that Tanner Scheppers hit 99 at least once. Scheppers looked great, mostly throwing fastball after fastball, but I'm still betting that gun was a little hot and Moskos was topping out at something like 90. Then there was the mystery of Moskos' supposedly brilliant slider, which he never seems to throw when I'm watching him pitch. What he does seem to throw are a couple of different fastballs, a terrible curveball that doesn't break much, and a change that has a bit of late movement and is actually a pretty good pitch. Now, boundaries between pitches aren't absolute, and so I suppose it's possible that someone might see what I saw as the curveball or the changeup and call it a slider. That's fine. But to say he has a good slider? I'm sorry, I just don't see it.

I admit it might have been a little harder than usual to tell last night, since opposing batters swung at and made hard contact with almost everything Moskos threw. Overall, he allowed four runs on five hits, including three doubles and a homer, in two thirds of an inning. His defense didn't really help him, but opposing batters were still just destroying him.