Random Notes Plus a Nostradumbass Check
Before we get into the meat of the post, where we look at who won what and how much Rice actually got right, let’s run through a few bullets.
- Matt Garza is cleared for baseball activities. Hooray for the powers of healing! Here’s hoping he kicks ass in spring training then.
- The Cubs signed Dioner Navarro for $1.75MM, which seems like a lot more than he should get paid. We didn’t get a length of deal (assuming a one-year deal) or whether it’s a major or a minor league deal (at that price I’m assuming he will back up Welington Castillo and Steve Clevenger gets to go back to Iowa) so let’s wait and see.
- Despite trading everything that could be moved, for some reason the Marlins won’t be trading Ricky Nolasco. At least not yet. The Marlins are evil by the way.
And now, our feature presentation…
All the major baseball awards have now been announced. In the previous blog, I looked at Rookie of the Year, Silver Sluggers, Gold Gloves, Manager of the Year, Cy Young and Most Valuable Player using just WAR and UZR. We can debate the merits of that later. Below are a series of spreadsheets showing whether I got stuff right or not.
Silver Sluggers
| Rice | Actual | Verdict? | ||
| AL | C | A.J. Pierzynski | A.J. Pierzynski | QaPla! |
| 1B | Prince Fielder | Prince Fielder | QaPla! | |
| 2B | Robinson Cano | Robinson Cano | QaPla! | |
| 3B | Miguel Cabrera | Miguel Cabrera | QaPla! | |
| SS | Derek Jeter | Derek Jeter | QaPla! | |
| OF | Mike Trout | Mike Trout | QaPla! | |
| OF | Josh Hamilton | Josh Hamilton | QaPla! | |
| OF | Josh Willingham | Josh Willingham | QaPla! | |
| DH | Billy Butler | Billy Butler | QaPla! | |
| NL | C | Buster Posey | Buster Posey | QaPla! |
| 1B | Hart/Goldschmidt | Adam LaRoche | Dumbass! | |
| 2B | Aaron Hill | Aaron Hill | QaPla! | |
| 3B | David Wright | Chase Headley | Dumbass! | |
| SS | Ian Desmond | Ian Desmond | QaPla! | |
| OF | Ryan Braun | Ryan Braun | QaPla! | |
| OF | Andrew McCutchen | Andrew McCutchen | QaPla! | |
| OF | Giancarlo Stanton | Jay Bruce | Dumbass! | |
| P | Strasburg/Leake | Stephen Strasburg | Copout! |
I felt pretty good about this one. Didn’t really expect Jay Bruce to get the nod over Stanton, but meh. David Wright seemed to get jobbed though. LaRoche sort of made sense so whatever.
Gold Gloves
| Rice | Actual | Verdict? | ||
| AL | C | Matt Wieters | Matt Wieters | QaPla! |
| 1B | Mark Teixiera | Mark Teixiera | QaPla! | |
| 2B | Robinson Cano | Robinson Cano | QaPla! | |
| 3B | Adrian Beltre | Adrian Beltre | QaPla! | |
| SS | Brendan Ryan | J.J. Hardy | Dumbass! | |
| LF | Alex Gordon | Alex Gordon | QaPla! | |
| CF | Austin Jackson | Adam Jones | Dumbass! | |
| RF | Ichiro Suzuki | Josh Reddick | Dumbass! | |
| P | David Price | Hellickson/Peavy | Dumbass! | |
| NL | C | Yadier Molina | Yadier Molina | QaPla! |
| 1B | Adam LaRoche | Adam LaRoche | QaPla! | |
| 2B | Darwin Barney | Darwin Barney | QaPla! | |
| 3B | David Wright | Chase Headley | Dumbass! | |
| SS | Barmes/Crawford | Jimmy Rollins | Dumbass! | |
| LF | Martin Prado | Carlos Gonzalez | Dumbass! | |
| CF | Michael Bourn | Andrew McCutchen | Dumbass! | |
| RF | Jason Heyward | Jason Heyward | QaPla! | |
| P | Buehrle/Westbrook | Mark Buehrle | Copout! |
I’m kind of disappointed that I forgot about Mike Trout here. Trout played LF and CF though so I guess his UZR was split up and thus he didn’t show up when I looked at the leaderboards. Dumbth. Gold Glove usually doesn’t get everything right anyway, so I don’t feel too bad about being a dumbass. Not to mention that UZR isn’t the end-all/be-all of defensive stats. At least a Cub actually won something.
Manager of the Year
| Rice | Actual | Verdict? | |
| AL | Buck Showalter | Bob Melvin | Dumbass! |
| NL | Davey Johnson | Davey Johnson | QaPla! |
The vote for the American League was very close between Showalter and Melvin, so I got screwed by a coin flip.
Rookie of the Year
| Rice | Actual | Verdict? | |
| AL | Mike Trout | Mike Trout | QaPla! |
| NL | Wade Miley | Bryce Harper | Dumbass! |
Same here with Miley and Harper. So close! Grumble.
Cy Young
| Rice | Actual | Verdict? | |
| AL | Felix/Verlander | David Price | Dumbass! |
| NL | Johnny Cueto | R.A. Dickey | Dumbass! |
The guys who won were actually deserving, but it really chaffs me that Cueto didn’t land in the top three of voting. Not that the finalists were terrible, but I really though Cueto had a great year. David Price edged Verlander by a really close vote. Lots of close votes this season!
MVP
There are about fifty million articles being written about how Mike Trout got screwed, but honestly I have no real problem with Miguel Cabrera winning. The MVP is a very subjective award. And it’s the subjectivity that makes arguing about the merits of it fun. I preferred Trout because I believed him to be the overall better player, but it’s not like they chose Vernon Wells instead.
| Rice | Actual | Verdict? | |
| AL | Miguel Cabrera | Miguel Cabrera | QaPla! |
| NL | Andrew McCutchen | Buster Posey | Dumbass! |
I have to admit that I didn’t see the Pirates collapsing so badly and I also didn’t see Posey blow past the competition. That was fun.
Now we wait until Spring Training. Sigh.