Sully Explains It All

Why aren't MLB.com reporters members of the BBWAA? Let Sully break it down for you:

Reporters for MLB.com have already been told who is on the team, giving them a head-start for their reporting. This is one of the reasons why MLB.com reporters likely will never be allowed into the Baseball Writers Association of America. MLB wants to pretend their reporters are the same as beat reporters for newspapers and other media, but obviously that's not the case or the names would be released to everyone at the same time.

Two reactions:

1. Someone send a waaaaahhhhhh-mbulance to the corner of Boo Street and Hoo Avenue, stat!

2. MLB.com reporters aren't BBWAA members? They are now officially my favorite baseball reporters ever. If the BBWAA hates them enough to exclude them from the clubhouse, they gotta be doing something right...

Good for the Goose

I second Jim's congratulations to Rich Gossage on his election to the Hall of Fame. Unlike Jim, however, I am snarky enough to carp about a few aspects of the vote.

First, Rod Beck, Travis Fryman, Robb Nen, Shawon Dunston, Chuck Finley, David Justice, Chuck Knoblauch, and Todd Stottlemyre alll received votes for the Hall of Fame. While these guys were all worthy players in their day, does anyone seriously consider them Hall of Famers?

Especially you lot out there who keep telling me Blyleven and Raines aren't Hall-worthy?

The fools who cast these votes have demonstrated that they don't deserve the honor.

Second, I find it amusing that the inflated numbers of the Steroids Era have turned some members of the BBTAA (Jim calls them the Baseball Reporters' Association of America -- I cannot give them that much respect, and fully believe that Baseball Typists' Association of America is an apter description) on to the concept of statistical context.

The latest to come to this mind-boggling conclusion -- The Sporting News' Sean Deveney. He's exceedingly put out that his good friends Jim Rice, Dale Murphy, and Andre Dawson were left out in the cold again this year:

There was some hope that, after the release of the Mitchell report confirmed the suspicions most had already had -- that steroids were prevalent among every level of player in the last 15-plus years -- voters might reconsider their views on the hitters of the '80s, might be more willing to put their numbers into the right context. Didn't happen.

No doubt, the gaudy numbers put up in the '90s has caused many to shrug off the accomplishments of those toiling in the previous decade. But keep those guys within the context of their decade and you realize that, yes, they did not wind up with enormous home run numbers. That's not because the players weren't any good. It's because home runs were harder to hit.

Putting aside the arugment that the Mitchell Report confirmed anything, I think it's sad that it took this confluence of events for Deveney and his cohort to realize that you just can't compare numbers from one era to another without taking the contexts of both eras into account.

Plenty of other baseball writers have been going on about this subject for years now. Bill James has been talking about it for over twenty years now! Too bad the typists couldn't be bothered to listen.

And if some deserving players from the '80s get hosed because some voters just can't wrap their minds around statistical concepts more complex than "Fifty homers is more than thirty homers"...well, you can't blame that on the juicers.

Some Reflections On Awards Voting

Since we have been taking the BBRAA to task over some incredibly stupid arguments for or against various Hall of Fame candidates, let me take a moment to throw some credit over to the reporters for a change. Last year, the BBRAA made a complete hash of the MVP voting in both leagues, simply checking a list to see who the RBI leaders were and anointing Ryan Howard and Justin Morneau as the MVP of their respective leagues. This year they only missed on one of two, while correctly identifying the Cy Young award winner for each league. Kudus to you, good BBRAA!

The one they missed was the NL, and, to be fair, this was far from the worst selection they've ever made. The NL field this year was crowded with many almost equally deserving candidates. In retrospect, I missed the true winner myself. Here is how the reporters voted as they chose Jimmy Rollins as NL MVP, and this was my vote:

1. Chase Utley
2. Albert Pujols
3. David Wright
4. Prince Fielder
5. Matt Holliday
6. Hanley Ramirez
7. Chipper Jones
8. Jake Peavy
9. Miguel Cabrera
10. Brandon Webb

Not that I don't think that Rollins is a good player; he certainly is. I thought that the ten listed here were better. Rollins was pretty much equal in value in 2007 to anyone named on my list except for the number two and number thee guys. It was overlooked by most (myself included) but Albert Pujols had another incredible season in 2007. His offensive numbers were a disappointment only by his usual standards; they were still better than all but only two or three guys in the league. Add his incredible defense (possibly the best at first base since Keith Hernandez) and you have the best player in the league. David Wright was a strong candidate and probably did not win only due to his team's collapse, hardly Wright's fault as he hit .352 and slugged .602 in September. I should have had Pujols and Wright one-two on my ballot.

The AL MVP and both Cy Young award were correctly handed out. If you are bored, you can compare my votes with the BBRAA's.

AL MVP
1. Alex Rodriguez
2. Grady Sizemore
3. Jorge Posada
4. David Ortiz
5. Magglio Ordonez
6. Vladimir Guerrero
7. C. C. Sabathia
8. Curtis Granderson
9. Ichiro Suzuki
10. Carlos Pena

NL Cy Young
1. Jake Peavy
2. Brandon Webb
3. Roy Oswalt
4. John Smoltz
5. Aaron Harang

AL Cy Young
1. C. C. Sabathia
2. Johan Santana
3. John Lackey
4. Josh Beckett
5. Eric Bedard

I also was not in agreement with either rookie of the year selection, although both choices are very defensible. In the NL, it was simply a matter of picking the awesome slugging of one candidate over the awesome defense of another; in the AL, they voters chose one media darling over another.

NL Rookie of the Year
1. Troy Tulowitzki
2. Ryan Braun
3. Tim Lincecum
4. Hunter Pence
5. Josh Hamilton

Any of them would have been a winner in many other years.

AL Rookie of the Year
1. Daisuke Matsuzaka
2. Dustin Pedroia
3. Rafael Perez
4. Travis Buck
5. Jeremy Guthrie

I remain skeptical of Pedroia's long-term chances for success, but I didn't expect this much out of him this year, either, so what do I know?

This is probably the last year I'll even comment on the Manager of the Year awards, because, frankly, I think that they are silly awards which illuminate nothing at all. So enjoy them one last time:

NL Manager of the Year
1. Charlie Manuel
2. Clint Hurdle
3. Bob Melvin

AL Manager of the Year
1. Eric Wedge
2. Terry Francona
3. Joe Madden

Most of those are pretty obvious: their teams won, so they must have done a great job, right? I wanted to put in a word for Madden. Quick, what team does he manage? No peeking! Madden did a very good job sorting out the abundance of raw talent he had, eventually finding the proper places for them all. He finally resolved the organization's unwillingness to move BJ Upton out of the infield, created a bargaining chip by letting Brendan Harris play shortstop, dealt well with the Elijah Dukes issue, and gave Carlos Pena a chance. He also handled his two outstanding young starting pitchers well, not letting either burn out just to try and win a couple of extra games. How he'll do when his team finally enters a pennant race in a year or so remains to be seen, but this was an impressive job. He didn't receive a single vote from the BBRAA.

Mind Numbing Idiocy

I am going to talk about the Hall of Fame tomorrow, but I want you all to be able to see why Hall of Fame elections suck and are getting suckier. Please read this. Your assignment afterwards will be to answer the following question: Who has their heads further up their asses, Republican presidential candidates, or the BBWAA BBRAA?

Show your work.