SB Nation User Blog: Russ

2009 SBN Baseball Awards: Cy Young Awards

Russ — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:40:07 -0000

More photos » by Charlie Riedel - AP

Zack Greinke is good, and he deserves to be in the feature photo over Tim Lincecum.

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	CC Sabathia	New York Yankees	-	1	2	5
6	Jon Lester	Boston Red Sox	-	-	1	1

As I calculated last night in one of the comments, the maximum number of ballots a player could have appeared on was 36 (14 teams x 2 ballots=28, 4 non-team-specific blogs x 2=8, 28 + 8=36). However, I don't know the exact number of ballots cast, but maybe it was 29, because if you didn't vote Zack Greinke anywhere on the ballot . . .

NL 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	Philadelphia Phillies	-	-	1	1
8	Jair Jurrjens	Atlanta Braves	-	-	1	1

Purple Row's top four looked just like this one. I gave the second-place vote to Jimenez, and maybe Rox Girl gave the third-place one?

2009 SBN Baseball Awards: Rookies of the Year

Russ — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:19:03 -0000

More photos » by Matt York - AP

I won SBN's AL Rookie of the Year. Who am I and what do I receive along with the title? (Sadly, the answer is that SBN awards don't come with anything.)

Browse more photos »

In the next installment for SBN Baseball's end of the year awards, I present to you the AL and NL ballots. First, let me recap who Purple Row chose for its award winners. In the AL, our voting gave first place to two Oakland A's pitchers, Brett Anderson and Andrew Bailey. Gordon Beckham finished third. In the NL, Marlins OF Chris Coghlan took first place in a close competition with Andrew McCutchen. Tommy Hanson finished third.

SBN Baseball voting did not follow suit. The AL winner appeared on only one ballot, and the NL appeared above but was not PR's winner. Join me after the jump.

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

Elvis Andrus appeared on Jabberwocky's ballot, and 21 SBN AL bloggers put him on their ballots. It was a close vote, as Andrew Bailey received as many first place votes as the first-, third-, and fourth-place finishers did combined. Brett Anderson had one less first-place vote than Andrus did, and he finished in fifth place!

Here are the NL results:

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

Purple Row's NL Rookie of the Year tied for third with Purple Row's second-place rookie in the SBN NL voting. Yet it was Purple Row's third-place winner who took home the SBN NL Rookie of the Year hardware (we don't actually have hardware to give away--yet).

I account for that Fowler third-place vote as I submitted the same ballot during SBN voting. Did one of the Pirates' bloggers give his first-place vote to Garrett Jones? I'm still trying to find out what a Casey McGehee is, and who gave that vote to Mr. Late Night?

2009 SBN Baseball Awards: Managers of the Year

Russ — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:44:58 -0000

For the fourth year in a row, SB Nation Baseball conducted its end-of-the-year awards voting during the last weekend of the season. Each team-specific blog received two ballots and voted for the league awards in which their team participated. The other baseball sites received four ballots, two for each league. A first-place vote awarded five points, second-place three points, and third-place one point.

Here's how we've done historically with first place in this award:

	SBN (AL/NL)	Actual (AL/NL)
2006	Jim Leyland/Joe Girardi	Jim Leyland/Joe Girardi
2007	Eric Wedge/Bob Melvin	Eric Wedge/Bob Melvin
2008	Joe Maddon/Lou Piniella	Joe Maddon/Lou Piniella

Yeah, we didn't differ from the BBWA over the last three years. Join me after the jump to find out the results for the predictable result to the NL voting. And if you care about the AL, I have those results as well.

The winner of the 2009 SBN NL Manager of the Year Award is our very own Jim Tracy, already the recipient of The Sporting News' 2009 NL Manager of the Year Award.

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

Jim Tracy received my first-place vote. and I believe Joe Torre and Fredi Gonzalez came in second and third. If our awards are any indication, next week we'll hear that Jim Tracy won the BBWA's award.

Here's the results for that other league:

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

Monday Rockpile: The one in which we can only discuss indirectly the Rockies' catcher situation

Russ — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:16:20 -0000

There are many elements that go into every important decision. In the first place, you must try to grapple with the facts. What is the actual situation?

Secretary of State Dean Rusk to Eric Goldman (January 12, 1964)
Quoted in Secret Agencies: U.S. Intelligence in a Hostile World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996)

Baseball's GM Meetings take place today through Wednesday, and Dan O'Dowd knows that this offseason won't be much different from most other years:

"I think we are going to have a fairly quiet winter, but we will have to see what's out there to fill our needs," O'Dowd said. "But we will be sensible and balance what's out there with the players we have in our own system."

Patrick Saunders goes over most of the well-tread ground for the Rockies this offseason, but he also mentions several young pitchers who might be ready to help the Rockies in 2010: Samuel Deduno, Esmil Rogers, and Greg Smith. Greg Reynolds also receives a mention, but being "in a better place," in O'Dowd's words, after surgery isn't a ringing endorsement.

Saunders: Is 2010 the Rockies' year of Iannetta? - The Denver Post
Remember, there's still some rule in place that stops us from directly discussing this----or not.

Phillies decline option on third baseman Feliz - MLB - CBSSports.com Baseball
Well, now the Phillies can go after Garrett Atkins once he's non-tendered.

Victor Zambrano's mother kidnapped in Venezuela - MLB - SI.com
"The mother of former major league pitcher Victor Zambrano was kidnapped Sunday, Zambrano's agent Peter Greenberg said late Sunday night by phone."

Coming up shortly, SBN's 2009 Managers of the Year Award.

Friday Rockpile: Free agency filings begin; no surprises for the Rockies

Russ — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:37:44 -0000

Rockies zero in on going the distance - The Denver Post
Renck offers three steps for the Rockies to make it to the World Series: Win the west and have home-field advantage, have Ubaldo Jimenez become a #1, and takes pitches and strike out less (especially Carlos Gonzalez, Dexter Fowler, and Chris Iannetta).

Rockies sign relievers Flores, Belisle - The Denver Post
Here’s the details on the Belisle, Flores contracts | All Things Rockies
God help us if either guy starts to collect on those additional incentives in their contracts. Also, Omar Quintanilla was out-righted to Colorado Springs, while Joel Peralta opted to become a free agent after being out-righted.

Reynolds, Johnston in Rising Stars game | ColoradoRockies.com: News
Relievers Matt Reynolds and Andrew Johnston made the Arizona Fall League's Rising Stars game.

Marquis, Giambi top list of Rox free agents | ColoradoRockies.com: News
Lackey, Holliday and 77 others file for free agency - MLB - SI.com
Here's an article on the Rockies' FA's, as well as a list of everyone who has filed for free agency so far.

Reports of Teahen trade appear to be premature - KansasCity.com
Someone jumped the gun in reporting the Teahean-to-White Sox deal for Josh Fields and Chris Getz. If this is how the offseason starts, let's hope for more intrigue.

The 2009 Yogi Berra Award
San Francisco's Pablo Sandoval had the most base hits on bad balls. There are several top 10 lists in the article--find Chris Iannetta.

World Series Game #6: Pedro Martinez vs. Andy Pettitte

Russ — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:41:31 -0000

Current Series

Yankees win the series 3-2

Wed 10/28	WP: Cliff Lee (1 - 0) LP: CC Sabathia (0 - 1)	1 - 6 loss
Thu 10/29	WP: A.J. Burnett (1 - 0) SV: Mariano Rivera LP: Pedro Martinez (0 - 1)	3 - 1 win
Sat 10/31	WP: Andy Pettitte (1 - 0) LP: Cole Hamels (0 - 1)	8 - 5 win
Sun 11/01	WP: Joba Chamberlain (1 - 0) SV: Mariano Rivera LP: Brad Lidge (0 - 1)	7 - 4 win
Mon 11/02	WP: Cliff Lee (2 - 0) SV: Ryan Madson LP: A.J. Burnett (1 - 1)	6 - 8 loss
Philadelphia Phillies The Good Phight @ New York Yankees Pinstripe Alley Wednesday, Nov 4, 2009, 7:57 PM EST Yankee Stadium Pedro Martinez vs Andy Pettitte It's time for No. 27 posted by Ed Valentine about 5 hours ago 5 comments \| 0 recs Girardi made the right call posted by Ed Valentine 1 day ago 73 comments \| 0 recs Burnett goes bust, Utley heats up as Phillies take Game 5, 8-6 posted by Brij 1 day ago 1 comment \| 0 recs Complete Coverage >

Who's going to be called daddy tonight?

Tuesday Rockpile: A visual refresh

Russ — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:29:44 -0000

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

Browse more photos »

By now you've noticed Purple Row looks a bit different. There's a bit more gray and white on the pages now, and all the boxes and widgets on the sidebars are more rounded on the edges. Headlines are now left-justified, which will take time to look correct, and they also look blah right now. The site's tagline gets buried under an ad, having previously been above. This refresh has its ups and downs, and I'd like to know what everyone here thinks.

If you find any problems with the site that may be related to the refresh, please e-mail support@sbnation.com.

Renck: Notes on Torrealba, Betancourt, Atkins - The Denver Post
Nothing major on this front with Yorvit Torrealba and Rafael Betancourt, but Renck offers the Phillies as a possible destination for Garrett Atkins if he's non-tendered and if Pedro Feliz has his option declined.

Jorge de la Rosa’s Question Mark | FanGraphs Baseball
R.J. Anderson looks at DLR's ?.

Negative Team WAR - 2009 Edition - Beyond the Box Score
A look at the negative WAR accumulated by all 30 teams. The Royals and Padres head the list and Rockies are last.

Former Rockies assistant to GM has many memories of early days - The Denver Post
Chris Rice, former assistant to GM, discusses those early days with the Rockies.

World Series Game #5: A.J. Burnett vs. Cliff Lee

Russ — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:38:32 -0000

Current Series

Yankees win the series 3-1

Wed 10/28	WP: Cliff Lee (1 - 0) LP: CC Sabathia (0 - 1)	1 - 6 loss
Thu 10/29	WP: A.J. Burnett (1 - 0) SV: Mariano Rivera LP: Pedro Martinez (0 - 1)	3 - 1 win
Sat 10/31	WP: Andy Pettitte (1 - 0) LP: Cole Hamels (0 - 1)	8 - 5 win
Sun 11/01	WP: Joba Chamberlain (1 - 0) SV: Mariano Rivera LP: Brad Lidge (0 - 1)	7 - 4 win
New York Yankees Pinstripe Alley @ Philadelphia Phillies The Good Phight Monday, Nov 2, 2009, 7:57 PM EST Citizens Bank Park A.J. Burnett vs Cliff Lee How about some happiness, gang? posted by Ed Valentine about 4 hours ago 42 comments \| 0 recs Complete Coverage >

The season ends tonight.

Monday Rockpile: Season-ticket prices hold steady

Russ — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:26:02 -0000

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

Troy Tulowitzki's a pretty good defender.

Browse more photos »

Rockies tell season-ticket holders that price will remain the same | All Things Rockies
But will we see an uptick in the number of season ticket plans sold?

Health key to Gomez's development | ColoradoRockies.com: News
We'll have another Fall League Pebble Report soon, but for now here's a piece on Hector Gomez.

Looking over the 2010 Bill James Handbook, here are some results to ponder:

According to the votes for the Fielding Bible Awards, no Rockie player won. Troy Tulowitzki came in a point behind Jack Wilson, the winner. Seth Smith came in tied for seventh with our ol' buddy Juan Pierre. Peter Gammons gave his first-place vote at second base to Clint Barmes.
The Rockies are good at manufacturing runs . . . and bad at allowing manufactured runs. In the National League, the Rockies tied for third in manufacturing runs with the Dodgers at 173. The Rockies tied for fourth in allowing manufactured runs with the Pirates at 168.
Dexter Fowler and Troy Tulowitzki made the top 10 for Manufactured Runs Contribution with 29 and 27, respectively. Tulo tied with Matt Kemp and Hanley Ramirez. On the Rockies, Seth Smith and Ian Stewart tied for third with 15 manufactured runs contributed.

Dressing up as a Rockie is a hot costume for Halloween.

Russ — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:54:48 -0000

Dressing up as a Rockie is a hot costume for Halloween.

SB Nation User Blog: Russ

2009 SBN Baseball Awards: Cy Young Awards

2009 SBN Baseball Awards: Rookies of the Year

2009 SBN Baseball Awards: Managers of the Year

Monday Rockpile: The one in which we can only discuss indirectly the Rockies' catcher situation

Friday Rockpile: Free agency filings begin; no surprises for the Rockies

World Series Game #6: Pedro Martinez vs. Andy Pettitte

Current Series

Yankees win the series 3-2

It's time for No. 27

Girardi made the right call

Burnett goes bust, Utley heats up as Phillies take Game 5, 8-6

Tuesday Rockpile: A visual refresh

World Series Game #5: A.J. Burnett vs. Cliff Lee

Current Series

Yankees win the series 3-1

How about some happiness, gang?

Monday Rockpile: Season-ticket prices hold steady

Dressing up as a Rockie is a hot costume for Halloween.