Tag / Miguel Cabrera

by jim

BBWAA Award Predictions

MLB: Cincinnati Reds at Los Angeles DodgersThe Baseball Writers of America have announced the finalists for their awards for the just completed baseball season.  It is a good bet that none of my original predictions for the winners will be accurate.  Hopefully, these new predictions will be slightly better, especially since I’ll have a 33% chance of being right.

American League

Most Valuable Player: Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout, Chris Davis

Mike Trout was my pre-season selection to win this award, but I also picked the Angels to win the American League.  They dropped out of contention early, and I think the same can be said for Trout’s candidacy.  My guess is Miguel Cabrera, who was having an even better year than his triple crown winning season a year ago before nagging injuries dragged him down towards the end of the year, takes home his second straight MVP.

Cy Young Award: Yu Darvish, Hisashi Iwakuma, Max Scherzer

My initial guess of David Price obviously did not make the cut.  While books have been written about how wins are not a reliable way to track pitching effectiveness, my guess is that if you add in a 20 win season with a trip to the post-season, Max Scherzer will take home the prize.

Manager of the Year: John Farrell, Terry Francona, Bob Melvin

I didn’t make any predictions for this award prior to the season.  I imagine that Terry Francona, beloved former manager of the Red Sox, will take home the award for turning around a putrid Indians team and keeping them in contention for the majority of the year.

Rookie of the Year: Chris Archer, Jose Iglesias, Wil Myers

Another award I didn’t predict prior to the season.  It is somewhat ironic, given the current value placed on young talent, that all 3 finalists for the award were traded to their current teams, one during this past season.  My guess is that Wil Myers will win the award.

National League

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by jim

10 Years Ago Today

BartmanGameAfter taking 2 out of 3 games in Florida, the Cubs returned home needing to win 1 game to go to their first World Series in 58 years, and their top two starters, Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, were scheduled to take the bump for games 6 and 7.  Prior was dominant in Game 6, giving up only 3 hits heading in to the 8th inning.  The crowd was starting to anticipate that, after years of futility, their team was about to make it to the promised land.  With only 5 outs standing between the Cubs and the World Series, Luis Castillo came up to bat against Prior and hit a foul ball down the left field line.

That’s when things started to fall apart, and one man’s life was, at least temporarily, destroyed.

Tonight is the 10 year anniversary of what has become known as the Steve Bartman game.  From my vantage point in the upper deck down the left field line, I couldn’t see the play as it happened.  The ball disappeared as the 400 section blocked my view, but, based on the crowd’s reaction, you could tell instantly that something could happen.  The replays quickly showed what we had missed, that a young man, decked out in a goofy sweatshirt, Cubs hat, and bulky Walkman headphones, tried to catch the foul ball, getting in the way of left fielder Moises Alou, who was not exactly hiding his displeasure.  The crowd grew angry and, as we would later learn, Bartman had to be escorted from the stadium for his own safety.

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