Lou Piniella, manager of the year? Over Charlie Manuel? Really?

Absolutely. The Cubs were in first place for over 5 months of the season and were undoubtedlty the best team in the National League all year. The Phillies just hung around and waited for the annual Mets collapse to seize first place in the last week of the season. It's tough to gauge who did more with less, but if you are going by team performance, this one really is a no-brainer.

The Ramirez in second place in the MVP voting was Hanley.  Pujols demolished the competition, with 1233 first place votes.  Next up was Ryan Howard with 53 first place votes (Howard over Pujols is quite bizarre; you've got to give a ginormous winning team premium to get there).

Howard wasn't even the MVP of his team - I'm not sure how anyone could vote for him over Pujols.

I really hope Linc wins the Cy. I have a feeling it'll be Webb though, which is just wrong.

Keith Law interview at ESPN - http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=23438

Blue Jay tidbits...

• Cecil won't start 2009 as a Jay based on a talk Law had with JP (guess they are on speaking terms) as JP feels Cecil was rushed through the system in 2008 and needs to spend some AAA time first
  
• Likely 2009 rotation if no free agents or AJ: Halladay, Litsch, Janssen, Purcey and Romero with Downs being possible instead of Janssen
• Feels the Jays won't rebuild but rather stay as is or build up as even as is they should be low 80's for wins - feels it is more ownership than JP's call (as most of us figured)
• Says Rickey Romero is at the least a solid bullpen arm and has minimal platoon issues
• Purcey is wild vs. everyone but the Rays

Eh, some more stuff for us to yak about.

Purcey really wasn't that wild. He walked 29 in 65 innings, but 11 of those came in his first two spot-starts; once he took a regular spot in the rotation, he only walked 18, vs. 55 Ks, in 57 innings. He only walked 3 batters in a game twice.

No one's going to confuse him with Roy Halladay, but Law seems to have stopped paying attention some time in 2006.

Purcey is an interesting case. 

His 2 spot starts he sucked royally in - 7 1/3 IP, 7 hits, 9 runs (all earned), 11 BB, 3 SO, 2 HR
The rest of his starts (10) he was pretty good - 57 2/3 IP, 60 H, 32 R, 31 ER, 18 BB, 55 SO, 7 HR, 4.84 ERA

He was a hot and cold pitcher during those 10 starts.
4 allowing 5 or more runs (5 or fewer innings each)
3 allowing 3 runs (6+ IP each time)
3 allowing 0 or 1 run (6,8,8 IP)

So 3 times he put the Jays in great position for wins (2-1 in those games), 3 times in decent position (1-2), and 4 times in a deep hole (2-2).  The record in brackets is for the team, not Purcey.

His 3 great games were vs. Tampa twice and Detroit.  His 3 solid games were vs Boston, Cleveland, and Seattle.  His 4 'oh god no' games were against Texas, NY, Minnesota and Baltimore.

The order was... good, bad, good, great, bad, great, bad, great, good, bad.  No real pattern there.

Basically he was 'the girl with the curl'.  When he was good he was really really good and when he was bad he was horrid.  The key is if the league figures out why he had problems before Purcey figures out why he had success.

Minor League Free Agents - Baseball America

 

 

Toronto Blue Jays (31)
RHP: Eduar Acosta (DSL), Rick Bauer (AAA), Jonah Bayliss (AAA), Chad Blackwell (Hi A), Jason Burch (AA), Lance Carter* (AAA), Jordan De Jong (AAA), Grabiel Diaz (DSL), Jared Gothreaux (AA), Samuel Medina (DSL), Julio Pinto (AA)
LHP: Chris George (AAA), Mike Gosling (AAA), Jo Matumoto (AA), Dieudone Paul (DSL), Carlos Rojas (DSL)
C: Adair Betegon (DSL), David Corrente (R), Erik Kratz (AA), John Schneider (Hi A)
1B: Brant Colamarino* (AA)
3B: Andrew Pinckney (AA)
SS: Pedro Lopez (AAA), Danny Sandoval (AAA)
OF: Eduardo Caraballo (DSL), Wayne Lydon (AAA), Erick Medina (DSL), Chad Mottola (Hi A), Luis Rivera (SS), David Smith (AA), Matt Watson (AAA)

 

Interesting list.  I keep cheering on Jo Matumoto as he is a good story (old guy given a shot in his 30's).

31 sounds high so I thought I'd check the BA site...
Under 10: Arizona, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, St Louis (just 5 for lowest total)
10-19: Atlanta, Boston, Cubs, Colorado, Detroit, KC, Angels, Minnesota, Yankees, Oakland, San Diego, Texas
20-29: Baltimore, White Sox, Cleveland, Florida, Houston, Dodgers, Mets, Pittsburgh, SF, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Washington
30+: Philadelphia (30) and the Jays.

I was right, 31 is a high total. 

So, who are the AAAA catchers who are out there?  Jason Phillips (remember him? hit 275-318-433 for Atlanta's AAA team this year) is out there but no other names jumped out at me and obviously I would not be happy if Phillips returns.

Notably from Law's blog was the fact that he actually spoke to JP.  And then lo and behold, the tone of his comments toward Jay prospects seems to have lost its nasty edge.  I wonder if there may have been some reconciliation there - perhaps with an almost-apology or mea culpa thrown in.  Stay tuned....