Knuckle Curve » david_wright http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve Major League Baseball News from Spring Training to the World Series Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:23:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Upton or Cano? http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve/upton-or-cano/ http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve/upton-or-cano/#comments Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:59:34 +0000 Geoff Young http://www.knucklecurve.com/upton-or-cano/ Post from: Knuckle Curve

]]> 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 Ripken, 1983, 144
  • Ken Griffey Jr., 1992, 149
  • Vladimir Guerrero, 1998, 150
  • Alex Rodriguez, 1998, 136
  • Albert Pujols, 2002, 151
  • David Wright, 2005, 139
  • Miguel Cabrera, 2005, 151
  • B.J. Upton, 2007, 136

Basically Upton had A-Rod’s age-22 season. Works for me…

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]]> http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve/upton-or-cano/feed/ 7 Obligatory MVP Coverage http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve/obligatory-mvp-coverage/ http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve/obligatory-mvp-coverage/#comments Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:08:04 +0000 Geoff Young http://www.knucklecurve.com/obligatory-mvp-coverage/ Post from: Knuckle Curve

]]> 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 you probably know by now, Rollins was named NL MVP.

It’s not Rollins’ fault that the voters botched this, so I don’t begrudge him the award in the slightest. Congratulations to Rollins and Rodriguez.

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