Baseball

Wow. Just as I thought the Reds had given up on any hope they had for Ramon Hernandez, he slides in the back door. Cincinnati just signed him to a one-year contract (with options) worth $3 million.

The Reds had declined his $8.5 million option earlier, and many, including myself, were not sad to see him depart. Ryan Hanigan can play the position for one-eighth of the price or less, and just as well I might add. I had big plans for that money!

So, we've arrived in 2004. The Chicago Cubs have just undergone the worst choke in the history of the NLCS. Stunned, Cubs fans could only watch in horror as Josh Beckett and A.J. Burnett dominated the mighty New York Yankees in the World Series.

You'll forgive us if we didn't enjoy the Jan Brady-like feeling running through our veins during that entire series and subsequent off-season.

The Marlins have two rings, and the Cubs continue to play foil for teams we fans thought our teams were better than.

Before Yankee fans decide to jump the gun and call me out on this, I'm just going to congratulate them on a terrific season.  They overcame adversity and gelled as a team and won when it mattered.

Starting pitcher Zack Greinke of the Kansas City Royals has won the American League Cy Young Award, defeating Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners and Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers.

Greinke pitched for the Spokane Indians in 2002 for his first season.

Greinke compiled a record of 16-8, an ERA of 2.16 and a WHIP of 1.073, as opposed the record of Hernandez at 19-5, an ERA of 2.49 and a WHIP of 1.135.

Ron Gardenhire has long been considered one of baseball’s best managers.

In 2009, he proved his mettle once again by leading the Minnesota Twins to yet another division title in the American League Central.

The pennant marked his fifth division title in eight seasons as the Twins’ skipper.

The Baseball Writers Association of America did the right thing by giving the Cy Young to Zack Greinke. Though not your typical runaway candidate, Greinke did everything right on a team that played so horribly wrong throughout the season. Greinke didn't have an impressive win/loss record, however he certainly made up for it all other categories.

Zack Greinke's win of the 2009 Cy Young Award should be considered one of the best accomplishments in recent baseball history.

The Kansas City Royals weren't a bad team in 2009, they were awful. Greinke's dominance on a 97-loss team speaks to his greatness.

The Royals are in the very competitive but winnable AL Central. Any great team needs an "ace" of the pitching staff to always depend on, but the Royals have almost an entire roster full of holes to fill in order to compete with Minnesota, Detroit, and Chicago.

Perhaps there is hope for the writers who vote for the Major League Baseball awards, after all. Then again, it's always one step forward, two steps back with these guys.

One might hope that the preponderance of advanced statistical evidence might educate voters for awards such as Cy Young, MVP, ROY and the Gold Glove.

After all, as younger and (hopefully) more enlightened writers obtain voting rights, the subjective manner of awarding players should improve.

Matt Holliday formerly of the St. Louis Cardinals and Jason Bay formerly of the Boston Red Sox are the prize hitters in the 2009 – 2010 free agent market. They are both looking for someone to “show them the money,” to steal a line from Jerry Maguire.  Holliday, according to his agent, is looking for Mark Teixeira money in the range of $22.5 million per year, and Bay is rumored to be looking for about $20 million a year (good luck to both camps on getting that kind of money).

What are these players worth in today’s market?

You know the old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” Well, that’s how I felt about the LA Angels' lineup the last few years.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that they are such perennial contenders, and the victory over the Boston Red Sox in the 2009 playoffs was fantastic. But the way they played against the New York Yankees brought back bitter memories of disappointment, and quite frankly, I’m tired of seeing the Angels look undermanned in the playoffs year after year.