Baseball

This is partially your typical awards piece, and partially an attempt to "set straight" the process by which the MVP and Cy Young awards are selected.

Lately, it seems that both the MVP and Cy Young awards have started to go to the pitchers who don't deserve it most. I'll tell you right here, first, who deserves them the most for 2009.

NL MVP

The Los Angeles Dodgers have been quietly waiting in the Southland for their next opponent since clinching their series sweep in St. Louis against the Cardinals on Saturday evening.

Huston Street opened the door for the Philadelphia Phillies to enter the NLCS on Monday night when he squandered a two-run ninth inning lead that could have extended the NLDS to a fifth game.

Anyone who spent more than 15 minutes on a college campus pretty quickly came to the realization that there are many things that seem like a good idea until you try them.

For some, it’s a case race or other manner of spontaneous intoxication. For others it was spending an entire day in the library to get a ton of work done (this seldom worked for me, as I still spent large swaths of time reading old political cartoons or the collected works of Bill Simmons).

Among the 134 pitchers Derek Jeter has faced at least 20 times in his Hall of Fame career, he has the lowest batting average against Scott Kazmir (.111) and Jered Weaver (.118).

That's not a good sign.

What is a good sign is the way the Yankees beat the Angels the last two times they played them on Sept. 22 and 23 in Anaheim—previously a graveyard for New York victories.

The Halos ousted the Bombers from the playoffs in 2002 and 2005, but this year, the two teams split the 10 games they played and were first and second in the Majors in runs scored.

The Houston Astros baseball club announced their list of 10 managerial candidates on Monday, Oct. 12, with names ranging from Manny Acta to Ned Yost.

Now, over the next week, General Manger Ed Wade and team owner Drayton McLane will be interviewing their choices before narrowing it down to their ultimate decision.

Wade and McLane will begin their sit-downs immediately, beginning Wednesday with interim manager Dave Clark and Astros Minor League field coordinator Al Pedrique.

Elite.

Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander finally earned the adulation with a remarkable 2009 campaign.

Starting on May 10, May's American League Pitcher of the Month led the Tigers on a 147-day first place expedition. Though Detroit was dramatically unseated by Minnesota in the 163rd game, it was no fault of Verlander's.

Among AL Triple Crown pitching categories, Verlander ran away with the strikeout title (269), shared the lead in wins (19) with Felix Hernandez and CC Sabathia, and placed sixth in earned run average (3.45).

This year is the five-year aniversary of the Sox reversing the curse of Babe Ruth and winning their first World Series ring since 2004. The Sox did the impossible during that unbelievable season by defeating the Yankees in the ALCS while being down 0-3 in the series. The 2004 Sox may be the best story in MLB playoff history. This Sox team will never be forgotten by Sox fans. I thought it would be interesting to show you what happend to all the members of the unbelieveable team. Here is the pitchers article of The 2004 Red Sox: Where Are They Now?.

The New York Mets have had plenty of great catchers in their short history.  Jerry Grote, Gary Carter, and Mike Piazza have all crouched behind the plate for the New York Mets.

All of them were very good players, and the Mets were more than glad to have them.  Since Mike Piazza left, the Mets, well, they haven't really had a great catcher.  Some solid guys, but nothing special.

I like Joe Nathan. I really do.

In fact, next to Michael Cuddyer, he's probably my favorite member of the Minnesota Twins.

However, he's part of the problem when it comes to having any sort of success in big games, particularly in the playoffs.

Now I know, 10th inning aside in the one-game playoff, which saw Nathan get out of a no-outs first and third situation, he's essentially a member of the "I'm Scared of the Big Bad Yankees" club, a small clique that infests the Minnesota Twins whenever they play New York.

Baseball fans love their stats.  And why not?  Stats allow fans to remain engaged with their favorite or most despised players long after the game has ended.  But, do we follow the right stats.  Up until a few years ago most fans thought that batting average was the best way to judge a players performance.  We now know better, as BA does not take into account such important attributes as how many times one gets on base or how many bases they acquire on their hits.