‘Cute’ Nick Swisher chosen for Thurman Munson Award

Nick Swisher, Angel Pagan and Mike Piazza were selected for this year’s Thurman Munson Award. Thurman’s widow Diana Munson had some nice — and interesting — things to say about Swisher (my emphasis).

“I love the way he plays, I love his enthusiasm,” said Diana Munson of Swisher. “Most importantly, he respects the history of baseball and the Yankees. On Old Timers Day, he was out there getting autographs and taking pictures. He’s not embarrassed by his love of the game, and respects the players. Plus, he’s cute.”

Diana can and will say whatever she wants. After what she went through in 1979, I’m not saying a word.

Hamilton wins AL MVP, no 1st-place votes for Cano

Josh Hamilton received 22 first-place votes and received his first AL MVP Award today, leaving Miguel Cabrera and Robinson Cano in the dust. Jose Bautista actually claimed one of the first-place votes, but received zero for second place and just four for third.

Cano had this to say about Hamilton (via LoHud):

“I would like to congratulate Josh Hamilton on winning the MVP. He is a great player and deserving of the award. I am very proud of my season and expect nothing less of myself. I will continue to work hard and play hard, and along with my teammates, do everything I can to help the Yankees get to and win the World Series.”

Class act.

I thought Cano would’ve received a few first-place votes. If you line up the numbers, Hamilton’s BA is the only thing that really stands out from the pack.

Player	HR	RBI	BA	OPS
Josh Hamilton	32	100	.359	1.044
Miguel Cabrera	38	126	.328	1.042
Robinson Cano	29	109	.319	.914

Cano also had a Gold Glove to add to his résumé.

Felix Hernandez wins Cy Young, I hope you weren’t surprised

Felix Hernandez’s combination of ERA, innings pitched and strikeouts (ranked first, first and second in the AL respectively) was more than enough to earn him his first Cy Young Award. That’s why he received 21 of the 28 first-place votes.

CC Sabathia earned three of those votes, but wound up in third place behind David Price. I agreed with this order too.

If anyone can make an argument for why Hernandez was not deserving of the Cy Young honors this year, be my guest. Do it in the comments and I will definitely have a response.

Here’s why Mike Scioscia should win Manager of the Year every year

Bud Black. Joe Maddon. Ron Roenicke.

What do these three names all have in common? They all served as coaches under Mike Scioscia for the Angels.

Black won this year’s NL Manager of the Year. Maddon won it in the AL in 2008. And Roenicke just got hired to manage the Brewers. Coincidence? I think not.

Scioscia grooms great managers. He’s won Manager of the Year twice and has a World Series ring. He definitely has one of the best baseball minds in the game, and I think he should be honored for that each year, regardless of his team’s performance.

Yes, you read that correctly. The manager doesn’t need to lead his team to a division title, or even a second-place finish, to win Manager of the Year award — and that’s not just my opinion. It’s a fact: see Joe Girardi with the Marlins in 2006 (4th place), or Buck Showalter with the Rangers in 2004 (3rd), or Tony Pena with the Royals in 2003 (3rd).*

*Coincidentally, all three managed or coached the Yankees at one point.

The list doesn’t go on much further than that — the award has only been around since 1983 — but those examples are still legitimate forms of proof.

Sports Illustrated’s Joe Lemire analyzed the award yesterday.

Baseball's Manager of the Year awards are essentially prizes for the skipper of each league's most surprising team or the club that overcame the most adversity.

The article’s main point is the qualifications for winning Manager of the Year are fuzzy. What else is knew? There’s another MLB award without clear voting guidelines. Every award is up to the writer’s interpretation of the award. As for Manager of the Year…

Jack O'Connell, Secretary-Treasurer of the Baseball Writers Association of America, wrote in an e-mail that there are no specific instructions given to voters and that they are told only to "vote for who you think did the best job."

That’s just ridiculous. And I’m pretty sure this is what it’s like for all the awards, too.

Major League Baseball should institute guidelines for all of its awards — like the Hall of Fame has (see Voting) — and the writers should be forced to follow them. Why the heck not?

Cano honored with Silver Slugger

No surprise here; Robinson Cano won his second AL Silver Slugger Award earlier tonight. Cano had a .914 OPS and his nearest competitor was Howie Kendrick at .721.

He already picked up his first Gold Glove Award Tuesday, but he’ll have to wait until Nov. 23rd to see if he completes the trifecta with an MVP Award.

Josh Hamilton and Miguel Cabrera had better years offensively, but Cano’s defense and his key role for a playoff team may persuade some writers for at least a few first-place votes.

I’ll detail my take on this year’s MVP Award voting as we get closer to the announcement, but I am interested in your response to this question:

Should the success of the candidate’s team affect the MVP vote?

Cano Featured Yankee Card of the Week

He won a Gold Glove yesterday, he’s my FYCOTW, and he’ll almost certainly win a Silver Slugger at second base tomorrow. Robinson Cano is sitting on his couch somewhere in pure bliss.

Tex, Cano and… Jeter(?) snag Gold Gloves

Now fans can officially say the Yankees infield was golden this year. Well, that’s if you trust the voters (managers and GMs).

Mark Teixeira (4), Robinson Cano (1) and Derek Jeter (5) picked up Gold Gloves today. Evan Longoria beat out Alex Rodriguez for the GG at third base, but I don’t think A-Rod was close to winning the award.

As for Jeter winning, here’s what Deadspin had to say:

There are no words. It's as if Joe Morgan left a giant turd on the carpet on his way out the door.

The comments are even worse.

So what do you think, are the Gold Glove awards just a popularity contest?

I’m really upset

Read this.

Now you know why I’m upset.

Every year it’s always so much fun to talk about who will win what major award. But when the writers contradict themselves and alternate the criteria needed to win each year, debating the awards is no longer fun.

If you were too lazy to click that link up top, all it showed was how Fox Sports writer Jon Paul Morosi is judging the AL Cy Young Award the opposite way he did last year.

I tweeted my take on awards Friday:

The Yankee U’s Matt Imbrogno disagreed, saying team success shouldn’t factor into either award. Obviously, there’s no right answer here because the writers change up what each award means every year.

Just out of curiosity, do you think the major awards should be based partially on team success?

Robinson Cano AL Player of the Month

For the second time in his career, Robinson Cano was named the American League’s Player of the Month. He led the majors in OPS at 1.201.

So, which month was better for “Holy Cano-li” (coined by @MyPinstripes)?

Month	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BA	OBP	SLG
Sept. ‘06	110	15	41	7	28	.373	.383	.664
April ‘10	85	21	34	8	18	.400	.436	.765

Tough to tell because of the unequal at-bats, but both are sensational.

We all know Cano is incredibly streaky, but it is really shown well through his yearly numbers in April/March.

Year	AB	BA	OBP	SLG
2006	79	.316	.341	.443
2007	89	.270	.320	.337
2008	106	.151	.211	.236
2009	93	.366	.400	.581
2010	85	.400	.436	.765

I think he’s due for a mediocre opening month next year. But let’s worry about the rest of this year first.

Stats via Baseball-Reference

Kevin Lawn Award Winners announced

The Yankees announced this year’s Kevin Lawn Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year as Austin Romine and Zach McAllister, respectively.

From the press release:

The annual awards are dedicated to Kevin O'Brien Lawn, the son of longtime Yankees Vice President and Chief of Operations Jack Lawn, who passed away in 1999.

Rivera is never going to retire

In an interview with Mariano Rivera, he said he will retire “the minute he knows that he doesn’t have it.”

Do I believe him? Yes. Will that day ever come? I don’t think so.

At 40 years young, he was named the Sporting News’ 2009 Pro Athlete of the Year. He saved his 500th game in 2009, and now trails the still active Trevor Hoffman by 65. But everyone knows that record means nothing in terms of “who’s the better closer?”

Seriously though, when do you think his cutter is going to stop working? He lost a little velocity in the pitch compared to last year (maybe 3mph), but that may have actually helped his numbers!

In the last seven years, he’s posted six season ERAs under two. In that span, he’s saved 313 games. He also ranked in the top 15 for Most Valuable Player in the American League for the sixth time in his career.

Oh, and it never hurts to add the fact he earned his first career RBI on his first career walk in 2009. Here’s the link for the video if you’re having a bad day.

Teixeira and Jeter settle for 2nd, 3rd MVP

Joe Mauer was just announced the MVP after receiving 27 of 28 first place votes. From there, it went:

2. Mark Teixeira
3. Derek Jeter
4. Miguel Cabrera
5. Kendry Morales
6. Kevin Youkilis
7. Jason Bay
8. Ben Zobrist
9. Ichiro Suzuki
10. Alex Rodriguez
14. Mariano Rivera
18. Robinson Cano
21. CC Sabathia

This marks the second time in three years when a Twin took an MVP award away from Jeter (this year wasn’t as close).

Mauer heads MVP discussion

The 2009 AL Most Valuable Player Award is being announced today at 2 p.m.

Anthony DiComo of MLB.com wrote an article yesterday that implied Derek Jeter has the best chance to win the award besides the heavy favorite Joe Mauer.

That surprised me, as I have thought all along that Mark Teixeira has the best chance because he led the league in homers and RBIs and played gold glove defense.

DiComo made a good point about this possibly being a chance for one of those “lifetime achievement” giveaways. He came close in 2006 but lost to Justin Morneau, and nobody expected him to make another run at the award again. Now that he has, the writers may feel it is time for him to pick up some new hardware.

The MVP debate is so hard to discuss because everyone has their own guidelines they go by. For example, some people say that it is amazing how Mauer was able to compile the numbers he did while missing the first month of the year. My argument would be that he didn’t do anything for the team for a whole month, so that loses a lot of value.

Also, some writers my weigh the fact that Mauer led his team to the playoffs without Justin Morneau extremely high, while others will ignore the fact that Mark Teixeira changed as a hitter when Alex Rodriguez joined the lineup in May.

I hope the vote isn’t a blow out, but I think it will be. Anyone dare to say Mauer isn’t the guy?

UPDATE: Beat writer Sam Borden predicts a second place finish for Jeter, while Mark Feinsand sees Teixeira taking second.

(Either way, Jeter and Teixeira are going to have World Series rings, and Mauer will not.)

Can you argue Girardi as AL Manager of the Year?

Angels manager Mike Scioscia was named AL Manager of the Year for the 2009 regular season. Now, there is no question he is a great manager and definitely was a top candidate. But can you argue that the manager of the best team record should have gotten the award?

Looking back on the 2009 season, I can remember countless times when my tweeps and I would berate Joe Girardi for making the wrong call in the game.

He continued his strategy of short leashes on pitchers in the postseason, and as much as some people hated it, it paid off. The Yankees were world champions.

Of course, the major counter argument to Girardi is the idea that the players won the World Series – not the manager (I agree with that).

Does anyone dare stand up for Girardi?

I’m out $100 because of Zack Greinke

Here’s the instant message from my friend that I’ve been dreading for the past four months.

GREINKE WINS.....THE GREINKE WINS!!!....BALL GAME OVER, WORLD SERIES OVER, CY YOUNG OVER...GREINKE WINS!!!!

Thanks, Pankey. And damn you, Zack Greinke.

Here is the link to my original post that publicized the bet. Here is the overwhelming evidence that I in fact lost the bet. And here is what I owe Mr. Pankey.

Jeter & Teixeira win Silver Slugger

  The two just got their Gold Gloves on Tuesday, and now they have Silver Slugger Awards too.

Is it just me, or is that a pretty cool coincidence. The rest of the double-winners: Joe Mauer, Evan Longoria, Torii Hunter, Ichiro Suzuki, Ryan Zimmerman and Matt Kemp.

Props to Longoria for stealing the Silver Slugger from Alex Rodriguez at third base.

Picture via MLB.com

Derek Jeter & Mark Teixeira snag Gold Gloves

And who said Derek Jeter has no range?

Jeter was honored with the AL Gold Glove for shortstop, and Mark Teixeira took home the Gold Glove for first base, Major League Baseball announced today. 

And no, these aren’t two big-name guys who win it every year. Both didn’t win last year, meaning both made improvements to earn back the honors.

Rob Neyer of ESPN.com had a major problem with the selected Gold Glove winners. I didn’t agree with him, especially after he said Kevin Youkilis deserved the Gold Glove for first base over Tex.

Hideki Matsui World Series MVP!

Hats off to this man. GODZILLA! What a guy. Congratulations to Hideki Matsui and all of his fans in Japan. He was an excellent addition to the Yankees for the past six seasons, and I’m glad he’s finally got a ring to show for it. With, or without him next year, I wish Matsui all the best.

The Roberto Clemente Award goes to…

Derek Jeter! It’s about time he was honored for his off the field work. Jeter is the best ambassador to Major League Baseball, and was my role model as a young baseball player.

Here’s some info on his Turn 2 Foundation:

Jeter established his Turn 2 Foundation in 1996, and since then it has awarded more than $10 million in grants for programs that motivate kids to turn away from drugs and alcohol.

Recently, Jeter's foundation donated $500,000 to launch the "Derek Jeter Academy at Phoenix House" in Tampa, an outpatient counseling center.

What a guy. A few of my buddies were talking about how he is overrated in clutch situations the other day, and I was a little disgruntled.

Sometimes, performing well in the clutch is being able to continue a current pace. In other words, Jeter hit .334 in 2009, so if he can hit .334 in clutch situations, that’s pretty damn good and makes him a clutch player, right?

If you don’t think so, then I can only think of one player in the last decade who is really a clutch player. Unfortunately, I’d have to say that man is David Ortiz. Thoughts?

Mariano Rivera – Delivery Man of the Year

For just the third season in his career, Mariano Rivera was the best closer in baseball. Are you kidding me? He’s been the best closer in baseball for the past 13 years, hands down. But, he won the DHL Delivery Man of the Year Award for the third time in the award’s five-year existence.

Congrats, Mo. I’d love for you to steal the Cy Young Award too, but that’s not likely.