Miscellaneous

If you thought Bautista's season long home run binge was hard to believe, how about this:
"Balls have been flying out of any stadium for us all year long," said Bautista whose second homer went to right field, the first one this season that didn't go to either left or left-center. from http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=300930109 (emphasis mine)
That means he has pulled 53 homers. I would assume that is a record for most home runs hit to left of center field (since Bonds was a lefty, and I have to figure McGwire and Sosa had at least some opposite field power). If anyhting, I think this supports the case that he did NOT roid up this season, since if that were the case he'd be slamming home runs even to opposite field. I say this because I heard someone, maybe even Keith, say that one thing roids does is increase opposite field power, and that opposite field power is truly a rarity (see David Wright) I have to say I'm surprised by Bautista's walks total (99 thus far) and his OPS is a booming 1.005. I wonder if he'll get any MVP votes. He also has 91 XBH.

In our debate over NLROY, I somehow forgot to mention this stud http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=30112 . I would say it's between Garcia and him, and perhaps given his role on their late push to the playoffs I might even go with bus'a-bus.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/5511/making-cito-gastons-case-for-the-coop It's a short piece, and I only mention it because there's an interesting point he makes - that Gaston was the first black manager to win a WS. Now, Jackie Robinson's career in itself was only borderline HoF, mainly cuz it was so short once he got to the majors, but obivously he did break the (that is, THE) color barrier. Gaston didn't break the barrier, he just happened to be the first black manager to win,. IF he were the first black manager period AND he won, cool. But imagine if Jackie hadn't won an MVP award, and some years later another black player incidentally became the first black MVP. would that guy deserve the hall call just cuz luck would have it that he was first? Jackie wasn't by chance the first black player, yes certain doors were open to him, but I've watched and read enough to learn that he had a certain drive above other black players. Plus, he was damn good at baseball. Cito had some success early on, but trying to link his race to a Hall call is, well, racist - or at least racialist (i.e., making an argument based off race that is not necessarily a negative view of said race).

Most interesting awards races in my opinion: AL Cy Young. Sabathia probably deserves it, Price is great but not clearly better, and Felix just has a shitty team. and for those who think Felix deserves sympathy, I suggest they look at Steve Carlton's 1972 season with the Phillies when he had, um 27 out of a team total 59 wins. That's almost half the team's wins! EEGAD!
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/PHI/1972.shtml scroll to pitching totals, their wins total reflects the team's record.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/carltst01.shtml other insane stats from that year: over 340 IP, 310 k's; and my personal fave, THIRTY COMPLETE GAMES. that's just stupid.
apparently he's also kinda stupid. And when Tim McCarver says so, you know you're in trouble: http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/14/sports/on-baseball-was-silence-better-for-steve-carlton.html

NL MVP - CarGo and Votto start the convo, Halladay could be in discussion, but also so should Tulowitzki (he went 4-4 last night, just an unbelievable September), and probably some others. But I'm kinda tired.
I have no idea who is even in contention for the AL MVP, and I already told you I think Halladay should win the NLCY hands down. -Natron (10/1/10)