Josh Beckett? C.C. Sabathia? You liked Beckett (60%) over Sabathia (27%) in our poll. The voters have spoken in favor of the large left-hander representing Cleveland. This surprises me somewhat because it’s actually the right call.
If I had a vote that counted for anything, mine would have been for Sabathia. He and Beckett put up very similar numbers this year, but Sabathia pitched about 40 more innings. Here are the top 10 pitching win shares totals in the AL for 2007:

Sabathia 23.7
Carmona 22.6
John Lackey 22.0
Javier Vazquez 19.6
Dan Haren 19.0
Erik Bedard 18.7
Beckett 18.6
Kelvim Escobar 18.3
J.J. Putz 18.2
Johan Santana 18.1

Not that win …read more

I haven’t done one of these in a while. Time to turn the electrons over to you; here’s what y’all have been saying at Knuckle Curve over the past couple months or so:

Remember that thing I said yesterday about Josh Beckett? I believe my exact words were, “time for Beckett to pitch the game of his life.”
Heh. I suppose 11 strikeouts over eight innings qualifies.
Now we have a day off (on a Friday, so I can watch Stargate Atlantis in real time) before the series returns to Boston. That is a place the Indians did not want to go.
The good news is they’ve split in Fenway once before in this series. The bad news is, well, asking them to do that twice in the span of a 10 days might be a …read more

Welcome to the moment network execs have been dreading. The Cleveland Indians need to win one of the next three games to face the Colorado Rockies in the World Series.
A nation yawns. Or it would, if it could summon the enthusiasm.
Thursday’s contest at Jacobs Field (first pitch, 5 p.m. PT) features a rematch of Game 1 starters and leading Cy Young candidates C.C. Sabathia and Josh Beckett. For Boston, the equation is simple: win or go home for the winter.
For the Indians, it’s more like win or go to Boston’s home for two more games. I’m thinking they’d prefer Door …read more

Meanwhile, back in the ALCS, we still have to figure out which team the NL champion Rockies will face in the World Series. The Indians have taken a 2-1 series lead over the Red Sox. Game 4 is Tuesday night in Cleveland, first pitch 5 p.m. PT.
Kenny Lofton provided the big blow in Game 3 with his two-out, two-run homer off Daisuke Matsuzaka in the second. Lofton apparently didn’t get the memo that it’s no longer 1995.
On the other side, Boston desperately needs someone other than Josh Beckett to pitch a good game. Tim Wakefield will be the latest to …read more

And folks said that Diamondbacks fans don’t care. Certainly they do, but as Rodney Dangerfield would say, “about what I have no idea.” Apparently not about dehydration. Oh, the water bottles were empty? My bad.
Either way, Arizona lost the game Brandon Webb started, which creates serious problems for the rest of the series. Friday night’s game (first pitch 7 p.m. PT) features slop-balling left-hander Doug Davis and young flamethrower Ubaldo Jimenez. If Jimenez is on his game (anyone’s guess given his lack of experience), he should have little trouble with Arizona’s hitters. Davis, as is his custom, will be perfectly …read more

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

Hello, playoffs! Should be some good games on Wednesday:

Rockies at Phillies, 12 noon PT — I’ve rambled at length about this series over at Hardball Times. Cole Hamels starts the opener against Jeff Francis. It’s hard to call Game 1 of any series a must-win, but the Phillies need to win behind Hamels to have any shot; the rest of their pitching staff is very suspect, and even their high-octane offense might not be able to overcome a loss today.
Angels at Red Sox, 3:30 p.m. PT — John Lackey goes up against Josh Beckett in this one. Two legitimate Cy …read more

We touched on the Cy Young award last week — specifically Rich at Baseball Analysts’ take on the leading candidates. Now another heavy hitter — ESPN’s Jayson Stark — weighs in with his thoughts.
Like everyone else, Stark has San Diego’s Jake Peavy and Arizona’s Brandon Webb in the top two slots in the National League. Nice to see Stark also recognize what Aaron Harang is accomplishing on a very bad Cincinnati team.
I still think Dodgers closer Takashi Saito belongs in the discussion. Lefties are hitting just .194/.239/.311 against him this year. They are the lucky ones: right-handers are batting — …read more

Hello, and welcome to Tuesday. Did you have an enjoyable Labor Day weekend? I hope you were able to keep cool. It’s been very hot here (by our standards) this past week. But nobody wants to hear some yahoo in San Diego complain about the weather, right? Let’s get to the games:
American League

Blue Jays at Red Sox, 4:05 p.m. PT — Blue and red, birds and items of clothing, two really good pitchers. This game has it all. Roy Halladay’s been kicking butt for several years now, ever since he reinvented himself in 2001, but what’s gotten into Josh Beckett? …read more