Cheech Tremendous

This album got killed by allmusic.com and it seems like everything there gets 4 stars. Between that and the reviews I've been hearing, this might be the first Jay-Z album that I skip. When he's at his best (Blueprint, Black Album, Reasonable Doubt) there is no one better, but when he gets complacent look out (Blueprint 2, Vol. 3).

Yes, but his own teammate finished second in win shares and Santana was only two Win Shares behind (and WS as a system seems to undervalue pitching). Numbers fun: Joe Mauer is a standout defensive catcher with a .936 OPS. Morneau is an average 1B with a .934 OPS. Who's more valuable again?

Player Club 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Points Justin Morneau Minnesota Twins 15 8 3 2 — — — — — — 320 Derek Jeter New York Yankees 12 14 — 1 — 1 — — — — 306 David Ortiz Boston Red Sox — 1 11 5 7 3 1 — — — 193 Frank Thomas Oakland Athletics — 3 4 7 7 4 1 — — — 174 Jermaine Dye Chicago White Sox — 1 2 6 5 7 4 2 1 — 156 Joe Mauer Minnesota Twins — — 3 6 1 2 5 3 2 1 116 Johan Santana Minnesota Twins 1 — 5 1 3 3 3 1 1 3 114 Travis Hafner Cleveland Indians — 1 — — — 2 4 7 3 2 64 Vladimir Guerrero Los Angeles Angels — — — — — 2 3 4 6 — 46 Carlos Guillen Detroit Tigers — — — — 1 — 3 3 2 3 34 Grady Sizemore Cleveland Indians — — — — 1 — 1 1 2 7 24 Jim Thome Chicago White Sox — — — — — 1 3 — — — 17 Alex Rodriguez New York Yankees — — — — 1 — — 2 — 1 13 Jason Giambi New York Yankees — — — — — 1 — — 2 — ` 9 Johnny Damon New York Yankees — — — — 1 — — — — 1 7 Justin Verlander Detroit Tigers — — — — 1 — — — — 1 7 Ichiro Suzuki Seattle Mariners — — — — — 1 — — 1 — 7 Joe Nathan Minnesota Twins — — — — — 1 — — — 1 6 Manny Ramirez Boston Red Sox — — — — — — — 1 1 1 6 Miguel Tejada Baltimore Orioles — — — — — — — — 2 1 5 Raul Ibanez Seattle Mariners — — — — — — — 1 — 1 4 Robinson Cano New York Yankees — — — — — — — 1 — — 3 Paul Konerko Chicago White Sox — — — — — — — 1 — — 3 Magglio Ordonez Detroit Tigers — — — — — — — 1 — — 3 Vernon Wells Toronto Blue Jays — — — — — — — — 1 1 3 Carl Crawford Tampa Bay Devil Rays — — — — — — — — 1 — 2 Mariano Rivera New York Yankees — — — — — — — — 1 — 2 Kenny Rogers Detroit Tigers — — — — — — — — 1 — 2 Chien-Ming Wang New York Yankees — — — — — — — — 1 — 2 Troy Glaus Toronto Blue Jays — — — — — — — — — 1 1 Gary Matthews Jr. Texas Rangers — — — — — — — — — 1 1 A.J. Pierzynski Chicago White Sox — — — — — — — — — 1 1 Michael Young Texas Rangers — — — — — — — — — 1 1 That's just insane all across the board. Sizemore, Thome and Ramirez don't even crack the top 10 and Johan Santana/Joe Mauer got only one first place vote between the two of them. Hafner was in the top 5 on only one ballot. I'm speechless.

Wow, Morneau wasn't one of the five best players in the league, and it's debatable whether he was in the top 10. That's an awful choice, and I can't see how its defendable from any point of view. EDIT: We already did the stats debate yesterday, but by VORP alone Morneau wasn't even in the top 15 in the league. EDIT again: By the traditional stats, he didn't finish in the top 5 for BA, OBP, SLG, or HR. The only thing he had going for him were the 130 RBI.

Maybe, but I doubt it. The gap between Shaun Alexander and LT isn't that large, but Hasselbeck is a much better quarterback than Rivers is at this point. That may change in a couple of years, but you can't compare a guy with ten games under his belt to one of the best QBs in the league.

The suits are great. Now if we can only get them in some real threads, instead of the "Reebok" designed messes they wore this weekend we will have some progress.

I still haven't heard anything about Carlos Lee to the Giants. I think TheDon broke a story that hasn't even happened yet.

Justin Morneau had a very good season and he seems like a good enough guy, but Santana and Mauer were more valuable players on his own team. Even though it pains me to say this, I think Jeter is the easy choice this year.

A show on Fox News that will take shots at the left. And how exactly will this be different from their normal programming?

Do you have some sort of confirmation on this, because I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere. Man, if it is true the Red Sox really could have had JD Drew last week for 4/$48M and balked, they are probably kicking themselves in the ass right now. With the insane money thrown at Pierre and Soriano, he could reasonably be in at 5/$65, or even slightly higher. Too much money chasing too little talent.

According to espn.com, Juan Pierre has signed with the LA Dodgers for 5 years/$45 million. Somewhere Bill Plaschke rejoices and Paul Depodesta cries himself to sleep. I wonder how much longer we have until the Ned Colleti backlash starts. His last three deals have all been very questionable (Lugo trade, Nomar, and now Pierre).

We'll take the sandwich pick and let you have the .299 OBP and increasing injury concerns, Mr. Krivsky.

Kevin Youkilis has won the Most Valuable Jewish Player award. I think statheads and purists alike can appreciate that one.

I'm not sure if you picked Olney because he's the epitome of a clueless writer or not, but I'm 99% sure that even he knows what VORP is. It's probably the simplest stat to grasp in the statistical toolbox. I doubt ESPN wants him using a Baseball Prospectus-exclusive stat on their network though. But it doesn't really matter whether they took advanced stats into the equation. By nearly every measure of baseball ability beyond home runs and RBIs, Pujols was superior. Howard had a great year, but it was still the 2nd best in the national league. The most frustrating thing is that the writers just arbitrarily choose which things they want to focus on. Howard won today because hit HRs, but Jeter and his 14 homers will win tomorrow because of his intangibles. Can't have it both ways.

Wow, you also make a good point, Jack Bauer. Only nerds think that the best player should win the award. I change my vote to Howard.

I spend too much time reading Baseball Prospectus, SOSH, Fire Joe Morgan and baseball-reference because I didn't even consider Howard more than a novelty candidate because of the gaudy home run and RBI numbers. I thought Pujols was the runaway choice, but then again I always forget that the BBWA are about ten years behind the curve on this sort of stuff.

Holy shit. Pujols got robbed. EDIT: Pujols had a higher BA, OBP, SLG, OPS+, EQA, VORP and WARP1. He played better defense and his team made the playoffs. I don't really see how you could vote for Howard. More homeruns?

According to the Cubs, he is playing centerfield and batting leadoff. Sort of negates his value that way, but hey it's the Cubs we're talking about here.

Couple of points about the Soriano deal: 1- It's one thing to overpay for a player by offering $17 million a year. It's quite different to do it over 8 years. Eight years is an insane amount of time for any baseball contract, especially a 31-year-old who just had a career year 2- Soriano has never played centerfield and Wrigley's outfied is tough because of the wind and the wall. Just because he played a good LF last year and has the athleticism you look for in a CFer does not mean he can effectively make the switch. 3- Big contracts should be reserved for elite players. Soriano is not an elite player. He has good speed, but he's not a good baserunner. He bats leadoff, but he is ineffective at getting on base. He has power, but its miscast having him bat at the top of the order. You could have gotten a superior player in JD Drew (although he has injury risk) for 5/$60.

Exactly. The team had good pitching because of Halladay, Burnett, Lilly, Speier and Ryan. Two-fifths of that equation are now gone from the team. Janssen, Marcum and Chacin each had an ERA+ of 93. Brandon League will probably be good in a set-up role, but a 23-year-old who had some success in middle relief is not a guaranteed world-beater when leverage increases. I still think the Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers, White Sox, Indians, Twins, and Angels have superior teams at this point. Frank Thomas doesn't seem like the best way to spend your money, but I could be totally wrong.

Because they need a DH, and Thomas hit 381/545/926 with 39 HR in a pitchers' park last season? The "not making the playoffs" statement as certainty is ridiculous, especially when free-agent signings are just starting. The Jays are not going to win the division and they won't win the WC with 38 games against the Yankees and Sawx, and the Tigers/Twins/Sox all probably being better as well. They can only spend so much money, and their team wasn't close to contending last year. Paying that much cash for a DH who will still probably miss 20+ games is not the best use of money. The Jays have a lot better shot at the division than you give them credit for. The Yankees need to get some pitching if they want to remain the class of the division, and the Red Sox -- the THIRD PLACE Red Sox, remember -- don't seem to know what they want to do from one day to the next. As for the wild card, I don't see the Tigers being better than last season, and the Twins and White Sox both have pitching issues to deal with. Assuming no major injuries (always a dangerous proposition for this club), the Jays will contend next year. Not that I feel like taking issue with the rest of your post at the moment, but I'm curious as to why you'd say this about the Red Sox. Dan Patrick and KO were saying the same thing on the radio earlier this week. If anything, this team has been steadfast in its approach to building a ballclub no matter what hiccups happen along the way. Why would you think that they don't know what they are doing?

Because they need a DH, and Thomas hit 381/545/926 with 39 HR in a pitchers' park last season? Player A: .264/.353/.513 Player B: .301/.342/.480 Player C: .270/.381/.545 Player C is the 2006 line that Frank Thomas put up last year. He's 39 years old and hasn't had back to back healthy seasons since 2002-03. You are going to pay him $9 million a year to DH. Players A and B are the lines that Eric Hinske and Shea Hillenbrand put up last year in Toronto, two players that you paid to get rid of. They can also be used in the field when you need them. That doesn't seem like a wise investment to me, especially when your pitching has huge question marks going into next year.

Well Jason Jennings had like a 50 VORP or something last year and is still cheap. He'd easily slip into the #2 spot in the Astros rotation. But I think if this deal is done, there'd be more players going each way to even things up a tad. It does seem that from reports at the GM meetings that Lidge's value is down a little bit, which is bizarre given that fucking LOOGY's are getting $12 million deals these days.

The Astros and Rockies are reportedly working on a deal that would send Brad Lidge and Chris Burke to Colorado for SP Jason Jennings. Given that they already have Brian Fuentes on staff, some are speculating that they are attempting to acquire Lidge to flip him to the Red Sox for some package revolving around Coco Crisp (who they've inexplicably have a hard-on for).

But, honestly, do rivalries mean anything to anyone outside of those who have a vested interest in the team? I live outside of Portland, OR and the Oregon-Oregon State game is HUGE here, but I don't think much of the rest of the country cares. Being 1 vs 2 puts a little extra luster on the game, but does it make "the biggest game in the history of college football" as ESPN is making it out to be?