2009 End of Season Awards

[Spear]

Carlos was #1 for me too. I gave Jimmy a 2nd place vote because of the run he had in the second half.

[Delandis]

Nothing against Morgantown but why? They seem to win 65-75 games every season?

I thought they were at 79+ wins and were on the bubble to have a winning season. I thought wrong.

I'll have to take a look around to see who actually did something this year. I mean LAD, Maine, Pitt, Batavia and WC are all obvious candidates but I can't remember how any of these powerhouses are any different than last year's squads.

[Z]

I thought they were at 79+ wins and were on the bubble to have a winning season. I thought wrong.

I'll have to take a look around to see who actually did something this year. I mean LAD, Maine, Pitt, Batavia and WC are all obvious candidates but I can't remember how any of these powerhouses are any different than last year's squads.

Here's what we did, for the record:

* Signed Pat Bryant, who's produced a 3.02 ERA as our setup man for $1.2 million.

* Brought Robby Shumway back for $700K. .720 OPS for us as a catcher.

* Re-signed Zak Gaston for $4 million.

* Signed Al Hamilton for only $9.5 million, getting an .834 OPS against RHP

* Acquired end of the bullpen reliever B.J. Leary from Philadelphia before the trade deadline. Our pen improved from 6th to 3rd over this time.

* Traded for prospect William Kroll, who's been worth just under 1 WAR in a half-season as our starting shortstop.

[Pat]

Here's what we did, for the record:

* Signed Pat Bryant, who's produced a 3.02 ERA as our setup man for $1.2 million.

* Brought Robby Shumway back for $700K. .720 OPS for us as a catcher.

* Re-signed Zak Gaston for $4 million.

* Signed Al Hamilton for only $9.5 million, getting an .834 OPS against RHP

* Acquired end of the bullpen reliever B.J. Leary from Philadelphia before the trade deadline. Our pen improved from 6th to 3rd over this time.

* Traded for prospect William Kroll, who's been worth just under 1 WAR in a half-season as our starting shortstop.

And still declined in wins.

[BradZ]

Here's what we did, for the record:

* Signed Pat Bryant, who's produced a 3.02 ERA as our setup man for $1.2 million.

* Brought Robby Shumway back for $700K. .720 OPS for us as a catcher.

* Re-signed Zak Gaston for $4 million.

* Signed Al Hamilton for only $9.5 million, getting an .834 OPS against RHP

* Acquired end of the bullpen reliever B.J. Leary from Philadelphia before the trade deadline. Our pen improved from 6th to 3rd over this time.

* Traded for prospect William Kroll, who's been worth just under 1 WAR in a half-season as our starting shortstop.

See, trade with Philly. We're King makers.

[Z]

And still declined in wins.

Did we though?

We finished with 108 last year. Even if we only win two of three to close out the year, we finish with 105. Three fewer wins.

Now, keep in mind we play 63 games against our three Ale opponents.

Pittsburgh improved from 91 wins last year to about 101 this year.

Cleveland stayed about the same — maybe two more losses — and actually improved in terms of expected record.

Pawtucket went from 55 wins to 69 wins.

Those three teams improved by a total of about 22 wins this year.

So yeah, our schedule was quite a bit harder this time around.

I don't think we got worse — I think our competition got better.

[Carlos]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the votes.

It may not be the most popular vote, but I gave Delandis the first (I did not vote for myself) because of this:

Pos Player DL Days
LF Kokoro Fujii 56
RF Danny Martinez 42
SP Dusty Reams 35
CF Dave Patron 28
SP Edwin Uribe 21
CL Marco Perez 21
C Joham Baiano 14
217

I know he's not the only one to go through injuries, but he always does this: loses his most important pitcher and/or bat for a good portion of the season and stays afloat.

It just made an impact on me when I thought about what guys went through this year.

I also voted for Z for a lot of what he mentioned above. Lots of small moves, stayed atop the standings in the league, fought off a tough Pittsburgh team, and got Hamilton to stay healthy by playing him at 1B - something Delandis didn't have the option of doing because of Chiba.

[Pat]

Did we though?

We finished with 108 last year. Even if we only win two of three to close out the year, we finish with 105. Three fewer wins.

Now, keep in mind we play 63 games against our three Ale opponents.

Pittsburgh improved from 91 wins last year to about 101 this year.

Cleveland stayed about the same — maybe two more losses — and actually improved in terms of expected record.

Pawtucket went from 55 wins to 69 wins.

Those three teams improved by a total of about 22 wins this year.

So yeah, our schedule was quite a bit harder this time around.

I don't think we got worse — I think our competition got better.

I was trying to make a funny.



I never said you got worse.

[Z]

I was trying to make a funny.



I never said you got worse.

I know, but you had a valid point regardless that I wanted to address.

[Delandis]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the votes.

I appreciate the vote as well, although I do think there were a few guys more deserving of votes this year (including yourself). I think I did ok as far as transactions this year, but I also got a few dead wrong.

Particularly, I probably shouldn't have traded Mendoza for Fujii. I thought Big Stud could turn heads in our park and I didn't expect Taylor to pitch so poorly this year. I really expected Fujii to protect Chiba but that ended up being Inouye's job. Injuries made it tough on Fujii this season and I REALLY didn't expect the dismal defensive performance from him this year. Hopefully he'll be a bit more healthy in 2010 and not make the trade look THAT bad.

Bringing Franklin Martinez back also didn't go as planned. He did come in not give up home runs, which had been his MO in his heyday but it seems like he lost a lot of control. As a matter of fact, I just realized a couple of weeks back that he lost his 3rd pitch (3 rated changeup) and only throws the fastball and the slider now.

The injury to Perez was really F'd up though. I'd like to think that if he hadn't gotten injured (along with Uribe) we'd be in the playoffs right now. I'm also kind of pissed at the injury because (of course) it happens while he was mulling over a contract, which he accepts AFTER the injury. Same thing happened with Katsura a few years back.

All in all I think we did ok this year, but nothing particularly of note to really be considered for a GMOTY vote.

[Delandis]

A couple of late award pimps for the other half of voters who haven't submitted their ballots yet:

Terumoto Chiba (IL Stout Slugger)
.345/.412/.911
-He leads the IL in AVG, OBP, wOBA, Hits, and Runs.
-Contrary to popular opinion he has a .893 OPS in the road. He can hit anywhere you put him.

Danny Ybarra (Last Call)
-1.49 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 0.11 HR/9
-Not going to get 1st because he doesn't deserve it but he should be the runner up. He had a great year.

[mike]

Stout Slugger voting is weird this year.

Davila got a bunch of votes, and though I've been pimping his case all year, he didn't crack the top three on my ballot.

Meanwhile, I cast my first place vote for division rival Ethan Bafford. It is the only vote — first, second, or third place — he has received so far.

What a joke



Kidding btw

[Matt]

Pretty sure he has Refreshing New Brew locked up. The kid might add a Stout Slugger or three before his career is over.

[Carlos]

I'm somewhat surprised he didn't get more votes but I think there's too much allure with the other guys. We only get 3 votes. If there were 5, Ethan is in there.

[mike]

Pittsburgh improved from 91 wins last year to about 101 this year

Goddamn right we did