It’s Award Season again in the MLB, which may as well be called Butthurt Season for many analysts. Before we get to that, let’s get to a few things that make Tonyonball butthurt:
-The Sprint commercials with the former Verizon guy. I did not know that he worked for Verizon previously. I do recall him saying, “Do you hear me now,” but that’s pretty much it. He could have worked for T-Mobile, AT&T, or even Sprint previously and I would have believed it. I can certainly hear him now, and I would like to place a Samsung Galaxy 7 Note in his suck hole. Did you know he started as a cell phone salesman at one of those mall kiosks and developed that catchphrase on his own? A Verizon executive saw his sales pitch, loved it, and put him in commercials. Pretty cool right? Entirely fictional, he was actually arrested following those Verizon commercials for a Jared Fogel like scandal and Sprint is giving him another shot. Not so cool right? Also fictional. The point is, no one knows who this guy is (Jeff Weatherman – just kidding, I didn’t bother to research it because I care so little), where he came from, we just hope he goes away as quick as he came. You had your 15 minutes, now kindly leave. No one is clamoring for the “Dude you’re getting a Dell” guy to come back and push HP computers. Although, if Hannah Davis wants to come back and do Comcast commercials Tonyonball would be strongly in favor of that.
-Camping out for black Friday. Seriously? Do you really need another 40” TV for $250? So you’ll save $100 and it will only cost you 3 days of your life? Does your boss know you are willing to work for $33/day? How about you work a couple of hours of overtime (or pick up an extra shift or two) and buy the TV the week prior or the week after. Spend Thanksgiving the right way: eating too much, watching football, and ignoring your family at all costs (but at least be in the same house).
-My dog’s behavior after a holiday. Tonyonball loves his dog, and perhaps between all of the cooking and consuming of tasty food, he treated his dog with turkey, ham, bacon, etc. a little too much. Now, this particular canine thinks he is getting food the second the fridge opens or the stove turns on. A return to discipline is in order…at least until Christmas…
Kris Bryant winning the MVP was not so surprising, Mike Trout probably was, Tonyonball doesn’t watch the American League that often until the playoffs. Trout is certainly one of the most fun players to watch, great defense (though no Gold Gloves, a bit surprising), speed, and power. Baseball has certainly taken a turn toward youth ever since the PED epidemic “slowed down” (no more 37 year old MVP winners who just crank homers and walk). While Trout has been in the league for 5 full seasons (winning MVP twice and finishing 2nd three times – that’s incredible!), Bryant is everyone’s favorite new guy (especially Tonyonball’s lady friend, could be worse, could be some guy down the street). Incredibly, Trout is only 5 months older than Bryant. So while Bryant was winning the Golden Spikes Award, Trout was hitting 40 homeruns and stealing 35 bases against Major Leaguers. Trout’s comps to this point in his career are good company: Mantle, Griffey, Aaron, Frank Robinson. Four first ballot Hall of Famers. Let’s hope he can get out of Anaheim, or they can stop dropping 30 million on crappy players so the Angels become more watchable. Also a shame the MVP came from a losing team. Trout may be the best player, but what did it really matter to the Angels? They won 74 with him, they could have won 70 without him wouldn’t have changed a thing. Mookie Betts’ season was a bit overshadowed by Papi’s farewell tour, and Jose Altuve’s team finished just ahead of Trout. Having good teammates didn’t seem to affect Bryant (his stat’s wouldn’t be near as impressive without Rizzo, Fowler, Baez, Heyward – just kidding). Either way, both players are deserving enough, hard to make too much of a case for a snub (though I’m sure Skip and Shannon argued about it, “That is the hottest seat in sports right now!” - please stop with these commercials).
American League Cy Young was a coin flip, Porcello had more wins on a better team, and Verlander is already winning off the field. Scherzer benefited from what would appear to be vote splitting on the Cubs (Lester and Hendricks), except that he received 25 of 30 first place votes, so that argument doesn’t really hold water, or truth. Scherzer racks up innings giving him a lot of decisions, which Tonyonball appreciates. The latest analytic trend is to basically ignore wins and only focus on ERA (or if you’re Brian Kenny, only FIP, BABIP, and BQR_S). Tonyonball appreciates ERA more than wins, but what good is a 2.00 ERA if you’re only throwing 5 innings a game and burning your team’s bullpen? Several times this most recent postseason pitchers would nibble with a large lead, forcing the manager to go to the bullpen way too soon. This hurt the team the next game (member game 7 when Chapman and Miller were tired…member). A low ERA nice, but collecting outs is the ultimate goal, even if it’s ugly.
Manager of the Year would have caused Chicago to burn had they not won the World Series. Maddon is great at motivating guys and getting the most out of them, it just so happens that this year he had so much talent, Jeremy Faust could have won 100 games. Also, he won last year, so relax. The MOY award shouldn’t be taken that seriously given the list of people who have NOT won over the years. Tony La Russa won only once while in St. Louis though he went to the playoffs nearly every year, won three Pennants, and two World Series. Bruce Bochy has never won manager of the year, while winning three of the last seven championships. You know who has in the last 10 years? Matt Williams, Davey Johnson, Kirk Gibson. Congratulations on joining that list. Half the time it seems MOY is more like the KOD.
Tonyonball doesn’t care about ROY because kids these days have it soft (that and I really have run out of lame inside jokes and absurd analogies for one day). Back for more College Football later in the week!
-Tonyonball
