Home Run Derby

The Cardinals have signed shortstop Cezar Izturis.  Albert Pujols and the Cardinals better watch their poo-holes. 

The Cardinals’ dugout is no longer safe for Albert Pujols and other Cardinal sluggers after they hit any game-winning home runs.  Why?  Because as we know - Izturis will have something really special waiting for them back in the dugout. 

Just like he did for Aramis Ramirez after a game-winning walk-off two-run Home Run on June 29, 2007 … when Izturis jammed his forearm into Ramirez’ taint.  Here’s the video.

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In 2008, the Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals are going to do something that no baseball team has done since 1991.

They’re going to break out the Powder Blue Uniforms. Mind you - they’ll be only occasionally be used as home alternate uniforms, but that’s a feat in and of itself. I don’t think anyone’s ever worn the powder blue in their home stadium before.

The Royals will be wearing blue shirts (with white pants) while the Blue Jays will go completely retro and bust out the baby blue from head to toe. The Jays will also bring back their old logo, a pullover jersey, and their old two-color cap. I have one of those hats. I love it.

There’s no word yet as to how often the Royals and Jays will do this in 2008, but the vibe is that they’ll do it enough that they petitioned MLB to add the uniforms to their regular cache of kits.

The St. Louis Cardinals have worn powder blue throwbacks in road games twice (2005 vs Tampa Bay and 2007 vs Milwaukee).

Considering that we’ve hardly seen powder blue for the last sixteen seasons (and the fact that no one under the age of 21 likely has any memory of powder blue baseball) let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit the teams that dared … to wear blue.

Prepare yourselves for a trip when the blue wasn’t just in the azure sky over the field. And watch out for lots of polyester pullovers and stirrups.

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I think the MVP award has gone to Jimmy Rollins’ head.

Last offseason, J-Roll made the following bold prediction about the 2007 Phillies …

“I think we are the team to beat in the NL East — finally.  But, that’s only on paper.”

Unbelievably, his bold prognostication came true as the Phillies did indeed win the National League East - thanks in part to a late-season collapse by the New York Mets.  And Rollins was voted the NL MVP.

Rollins isn’t letting his tongue rest this offseason either.  The winter meetings are nearly a week away and J-Roll is already talking smack to the NL East.

Here’s what the reigning NL MVP had to say last night on Comcast SportsNet in Philly …

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Let me start by saying I have no love of David Wright. Too many times he has put me in Home Run Derby Hell, especially with 1 Home Run in his first 100 at bats this season and 3 in his first 150. Yes, I know that he had a great year when it was all said and done (.325 BA, .546 SLG, 30 HR, 107 RBI).

Good for him.

But as I said back on May 10th, he is dead to me, and in Greektown those designations are permanent.

Why do I bring this up? Well yesterday, Richie had a post on why Matt Holliday was going to win the MVP, which of course (in true Richie fashion) he got wrong. In the comment thread, a commenter named “Sky” said the following:

“You know who got screwed? David Wright. And Albert Pujols. Chipper Jones, and Chase Utley, too. Those four were clearly the four most productive players in the NL. All were huge on offense and added a lot of value defensively. If you want to include some sort of voodoo for playing on a playoff team, fine. But that doesn’t mean Holliday or Rollins were better players.”

Sky was kind enough to include a link to his blog, Skyking162, which has a great tag line, “baseball with a hint of lime.” His latest post, and the basis for his comment, uses the statistical measure, total runs above replacement value (TVAR) to determine who was most deserving of the MVP award (David Wright in this case) in the National League.

For those readers unfamiliar with the concept of replacement value in baseball, it tries to measure the production of a certain player, both offensively and defensively, when compared against the strawman “replacement player”, or average player. It comes from the sabermetric world, where the likes of Bill James, Rob Neyer, the Baseball Prospectus and many others who have made a significant contribution the game live.

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Whoever the National League MVP is this season, somebody’s gonna get screwed.

Because there’s two guys who absolutely deserve it.  Jimmy Rollins and Matt Holliday.  Both these guys were linchpins in their respective teams’ unbelievable late-September runs for the playoffs.

Jimmy Rollins with the Phillies, who won the NL East after having trailed the New York Mets by 6.5 games with just over two weeks to go in the season.

Matt Holliday with the Rockies, who won 13 of their last 14 regular season games just to force a playoff for the NL Wildcard spot.

Which they won, thanks to Matt Holliday’s winning run on a controversial headfirst slide into home plate in extra innings.

Both players had career seasons.

Both players were undisputed leaders on their teams.

But I think Matt Holliday will win the National League MVP.

Why?

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Add the US Government to the list of people who think that Barry Bonds has lied about his involvement in steroids. 

What took them so long?

Okay, they’ve probably thought that for some time … but now they’re saying they think they can prove it. 

Here’s a piece from the five count indictment from The Smoking Gun.  I highlighted the part which formally accuses the defendant of what almost all of us have alleged for some time now - that Barry Bonds used steroids …

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Major League Baseball’s Posteason awards are the the ultimate in recognition for a ballplayer.  To be named your League’s best pitcher or Most Valuable Player does wonders for an already inflated ego.

Not to mention your wallet getting fatter from the contract incentives for winning one.

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Nobody asked me, but I’m 100% sure that San Diego’s Jake Peavy will be announced as the National League Cy Young Award Winner later this afternoon.

I’m 100% sure of that.  Why?  Because Peavy won the Triple Crown in the National League this season with 19 Wins, a 2.54 ERA and 240 Strikeouts.

Since the inception of the Award in 1956, every pitcher to capture a Triple Crown has won the Cy Young. 

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We’ve already unveiled our Andre Dawson Awards this week … so let’s go back twenty years to Andre Dawson’s MVP season in 1987 - specifically August 1, 1987.

The Chicago Cubs were 5.5 games back of the Cardinals.  The Philadelphia Phillies were at Wrigley Field.

And Andre Dawson smoked the Phillies for Home Runs #29, #30 and #31.

The following video clip is great to see Dawson in his prime and to hear Harry Caray and Steve Stone call the action.

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