Eric at Rays Anatomy has a fun post up debating the relative merits of B.J. Upton and Robinson Cano. I’m pretty squarely in the Upton camp on this one. Cano is a terrific young player, but much of his value is tied into batting average, and second basemen don’t always age well.
Upton, meanwhile, just posted a 136 OPS+ as a 22-year-old, which is ridiculous. In the history of baseball, 48 players have been that productive at that age. Only 11 of those seasons have come in the last 30 years:

Jack Clark, 1978, 152 OPS+
Eddie Murray, 1978, 140
Rickey Henderson, 1981, 150
Cal …read more

Andrew at Defensive Indifference lists the 10 sports figures he blogged about most in 2007, as requested by the incomparable Jamie Mottram. As I did last year, I’m again participating in this project (thanks, Jamie!). Following Andrew’s lead, here is my list, in alphabetical order:

Barry Bonds. His stories pretty much write themselves.
Miguel Cabrera. Anyone who gets scolded by Ozzie Guillen for being too fat is okay in my book.
Fausto Carmona. One of the biggest surprises of 2007.
Daisuke Matsuzaka. Not as good as the hype, but still pretty good.
Gil Meche. Irresponsible spending almost got the Royals out of last place.
Jake Peavy. …read more

The voters went 50-50 this year. They got one right, the other not so much.
Your 2007 AL MVP is Alex Rodriguez, which makes sense because with all due respect to Detroit’s Magglio Ordonez, A-Rod dominated the league in every conceivable way. His was an easy choice.
In the National League, things were complicated by the Mets’ historic collapse. If David Wright’s team had reached the playoffs, I’m convinced the voters would have chosen the right guy.
As it stands, they were sure to make a mistake, the only issue being whether it would favor Colorado’s Matt Holliday or Philadelphia’s Jimmy Rollins. As …read more

I always thought the “A” in “A-Rod” stood for Alex, but maybe not. I’ve heard other suggestions.
Anywho, if you aren’t as sick of this story as I am, go read more about it. Short version is, it looks like Alex Rodriguez will remain with the Yankees.
Go on, act like you care. I dare you.
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The 2008 CHONE projections for hitters are available. Here are a few key free agents lines:

Barry Bonds: .272/.446/.558
Alex Rodriguez: .303/.420/.588
Kosuke Fukudome: .283/.373/.465
Torii Hunter: .282/.345/.491
Andruw Jones: .246/.339/.472
Mike Lowell: .283/.346/.455
Aaron Rowand: .277/.343/.443
Mike Cameron: .246/.331/.435
Mike Piazza: .260/.321/.430
Sammy Sosa: .234/.303/.418
Julio Franco: .231/.307/.324

I hope Franco keeps playing till he’s 50. Anyway, download the whole dealio and entertain yourself for hours…
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Baseball-Reference’s Play Index tool now provides the option to search only for current free agents. This is handy for determining things like how totally hosed you are if you’re trying to fill a void at third base via free agency and can’t afford Alex Rodriguez.
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There’s nonsense, and then there’s nonsense. I don’t dispute that the Florida Marlins might be shopping Miguel Cabrera, but something here seems a bit, well, fishy:
Why would the Marlins, with the worst attendance in the game and desperately trying to land a stadium deal, unload their best player and one of the top hitters in baseball?
For one, Cabrera – who made $7.4 million last season – stands to make at least $10 million in arbitration this winter, a challenging price tag for a low-revenue team. Also, despite averaging 31 homers, 116 RBI and a .327 batting average the past three …read more

Alex Rodriguez has opted out of his 10-year, $252 million deal. This has fascinating implications:
By opting out, Rodriguez will forfeit the potential $91 million that is left on his contract. Also, the Texas Rangers, who traded Rodriguez to the Yankees in 2004, will not be responsible for subsidizing $30 million of his salary.
First off, can you even imagine kissing up to $30 million a year (his current deal was through 2010) goodbye on the assumption that you’ll be able to earn more on the open market? I so need a new line of work.
Hank Steinbrenner’s quotes are classic:
If you don’t …read more

J.C. Bradbury is holding a contest over at Sabernomics. Let him know how much you think Alex Rodriguez will sign for as a free agent, and you could win J.C.’s book, The Baseball Economist (aff link). Using the sophisticated WAG system, I went with 8 years, $259.1 million.
Good luck…
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Okay, I promise this is the last I’ll say on the subject. In case you somehow missed it, we’ve been running polls on all of MLB’s major postseason awards. Here is a list of links to all of our polls and who is leading as of this writing.

Award
Current Leader

AL MVP
Alex Rodriguez

NL MVP
Jimmy Rollins Matt Holliday

AL Cy Young
Josh Beckett

NL Cy Young
Jake Peavy

AL Rookie
Dustin Pedroia

NL Rookie
Troy Tulowitzki

AL Manager of the Year
Eric Wedge

NL Manager of the Year
Clint Hurdle

I’m not going to tell you which ones I think are wrong, but I will say that their names rhyme with Mimmy Mollins Ratt Rolliday and …read more