Knuckle Curve » dustin_pedroia

Parsing Maddon

Geoff Young — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 18:12:44 +0000

This is a tough time of the year to write about baseball, so I love when people say things that don’t make a lot of sense. The great thing is, you can almost always count on someone to come through in the clutch.

Enter Tampa Bay Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon, talking about the fact that his outfielder, Delmon Young, didn’t win the AL Rookie of the Year:

It’s really disturbing. I can see him not winning the award, but leaving him off eight ballots is just a sign of personal prejudice.

In this case, “personal prejudice” is code for “understanding the criteria for determining excellence.” The folks who left Young off the ballot presumably recognized that a 91+ OPS from a corner outfielder just isn’t all that exciting.

Don’t get me wrong, Young has a bright future ahead of him if he can keep from doing Really Stupid Things, but aside from the batting average and RBI, his rookie season wasn’t special. Each writer gets to put three names on the ballot, and I could totally see going with Dustin Pedroia (an easy choice for #1 despite his Red Sox affiliation), Brian Bannister, and Daisuke Matsuzaka. I’m not sure that’s how I would have voted, but I think it’s perfectly justifiable without bringing any nonsense about “personal prejudice” into the discussion.

I think it’s wrong. At that point, it has nothing to do with the player’s performance. The award is not a popularity race.

Okay, how long has Maddon been in baseball? And he honestly believes that the award is not a popularity race? Is he even paying attention?

I don’t think there was any way he wasn’t one of the top three rookies in the league.

Right, but eight writers disagreed, and it’s a defensible position.

And how many other rookies in the history of the game played 162 games like he did?

So now excellence is a function of showing up to work every day. Sorry, but this doesn’t belong in the discussion at all. Still, give Maddon credit for defending his player even if it’s not entirely justified.

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Braun, Pedroia Win Rookie of the Year

Geoff Young — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:19:07 +0000

Milwaukee Brewers “third baseman” Ryan Braun and Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia have been named 2007 Rookie of the Year for the NL and AL, respectively. Braun just beat Colorado’s Troy Tulowiztki in the NL, while Pedroia easily won in the AL.

You are so smart: In our polls, Braun nosed out Tulowitzki, 180-172, and Pedroia took 75% of the votes. Hooray for us, hooray for Braun and Pedroia, hooray for everything.

Other Voices

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Fausto Faces Curt, Coco Sits

Geoff Young — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 16:41:41 +0000

The ALCS heads back to Boston. While the Rockies do whatever it is teams do while they’re waiting for their opponent to be determined, the Indians and Red Sox hook up for Game 6 on Saturday night (first pitch: 5 p.m. PT).

This is a rematch of last week’s Fausto Carmona/Curt Schilling showdown. The Indians won the earlier contest on the strength of a seven-run 11th inning. (Hey, if the Rockies are trying to trademark “Rocktober”, maybe the Indians could trademark “7-11″; you think?)

Where there are Red Sox, there is drama. This time it comes in the form of rookie Jacoby Ellsbury starting in center field over Coco Crisp. As a Padres fan, I love this move because maybe it will help drive Crisp’s price down this off-season.

Oh wait, we’re talking about the playoffs. Sorry ’bout that.

Well, then, I don’t really care who plays center. What I do find interesting is that apparently Boston considered replacing Dustin Pedroia at second base with Alex Cora. Then someone remembered that the Red Sox actually need to win this game, so that idea was shelved.

What was my point here? I dunno; you tell me…

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2007 MLB Award Poll Recap

Geoff Young — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:45:10 +0000

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 Posh Peckett. If you haven’t voted yet, please feel free to do the right thing.

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2007 AL Rookie of the Year Poll

Geoff Young — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:08:53 +0000

{democracy:23}

Another day, another poll. Today we’re looking at the American League Rookie of the Year, an award I haven’t talked too much about in this space. My preseason pick was Royals third baseman Alex Gordon, and although he finished with respectable numbers, he’s not my choice.

Neither is Tampa Bay’s Delmon Young. I expect him to win the award because of his big RBI numbers, but I’d go with Boston’s Dustin Pedroia. In addition to outhitting Young this year, Pedroia also plays second base.

Beyond Pedroia, you could make a decent case for Baltimore right-hander Jeremy Guthrie, although the fact that he managed just seven wins is probably a deal breaker in the voters’ eyes. Daisuke Matsuzaka? His season was better than he gets credit for, but with all the hype surrounding him, that’s just not good enough.

So. Who would get your vote?

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