By Thom Henninger This week’s MVP winners have extremely impressive resumes. Minnesota’s Joe Mauer became the first American League catcher to win a batting title in 2006, his second full season in the majors. He claimed his third title in four seasons in 2009, and now has added an MVP award to his trophy case.
From the monthly archives:
November 2009
By Thom Henninger It was thought the American League Cy Young vote would be tight, with Zack Greinke and three 19-game winners in the mix, but the National League count proved to be a much closer one. With 10 points separating the top three vote-getters, Giants ace Tim Lincecum repeated as the NL winner in [...]
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By Thom Henninger Sixteen wins may not sound like a ticket to Cy Young honors, but the baseball writers got it right when they gave Kansas City ace Zack Greinke the American League award. The 26-year-old right-hander was 16-8 for the last-place Royals, who lost 97 games and shared the AL Central cellar with Cleveland. [...]
By James Bailey The Rookie of the Year awards were announced Monday, with Oakland closer Andrew Bailey taking AL honors and Marlins outfielder Chris Coghlan finishing tops in the NL. Not to toot our own horn, but we tabbed these two as the top rookies back on October 9. Congrats to the two of them [...]
By Thom Henninger Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports was quick to wade through the Elias player rankings, which were released Monday by the players’ union and determine draft-pick compensation for free agents.
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By Elizabeth Finn To call them Cinderella would be an insult to the game. Nowhere in the corpulent largess and Goliath stature is there room for heartwarming tales of triumph beyond all odds–sandlot boys with scuffed knees playing a big man’s game. They are the biggest, the shiniest, the most impervious. They are caviar and [...]
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By Thom Henninger When the New York Yankees secured their 27th World Series title with a 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday, it was eight years to the day that Luis Gonzalez delivered a broken-bat single off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2001 Fall Classic. That hit [...]
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By James Bailey No position is subject to more turnover each season than closer. Every year new stars emerge while others fade into oblivion. This season we saw five men save 30 games for the first time in their careers. History says no more than three of them will repeat this accomplishment. Most clubs look [...]
By Thom Henninger If the New York Yankees win their first World Series title in nine years this week, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel will face an offseason of chatter about his decision to start Joe Blanton in Game 4. The Yankees turned to CC Sabathia on three days’ rest, but Manuel chose to go with [...]
By James Bailey Long before catchers actually had tools of ignorance, brave—or crazy—young men clamped their teeth around a chunk of rubber and crept up behind the batter to receive pitches barehanded. When their gnarled fingers split open or a foul ball collided with their skull they got back up and kept at it. Peter [...]
