So let's get to the best division in all of baseball, the NL Central
Aramis Ramirez is a big reason why the Chicago Cubs are
the best team in the major leagues
Milwaukee Brewers: Here's a team that historically has been either terrible or mediocre. Even heading towards the trading deadline, this team didn't seem all that great. But the acquisition of CC Sabathia gave the Brewers a spark that set them on fire. In his first game he pitched a complete game and hit a home run. That was followed by two more complete games. Since the deal, Sabathia is 9-0 with a 1.43 ERA with a total of an astounding six complete games (nine in total, five shutouts). Only Roy Halladay comes close with eight complete games, but only two shutouts.
Hitting and on the field, the Brewers look pretty good. Ryan Braun is a masher but has his adventures in left. Mike Cameron is an above average center fielder, always keeps a .250 AVG but shows power at the plate. Corey Hart is having a nice year both offensively and defensively in right. Prince Fielder is having a nice power year and better than you would expect at first base. Rickie Weeks has been below average at the plate and average at second. J.J. Hardy is one of the streakiest players in baseball but is having a very nice year for himself. Jason Kendall is a shell of what he used to be behind the plate.
On the pitching front, CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets are the best 1, 2 combination in the major leagues. The rest of the rotation is average at best. The bullpen has been shaky. Eric Gagne has been awful and has been pitching middle relief of late. But Solomon Torres has stepped up as closer and Ben Shouse as the set-up man. They have really anchored the back-end of the bullpen.
Chicago Cubs: As what seems to happen every year, baseball fans are looking for something to go wrong to throw a wrench in what has been a great season for the Cubbies. Alfonso Soriano has been having an above-average year, but has been hot of late. Jim Edmonds and Kosuke Fukudome are having rather pedestrian years in center and right. Aramis Ramirez has been having a great year, like he always does. Ryan Theriot has been a good leadoff hitter and played a good shortstop, providing nice speed and contact hitting atop the lineup. Mark DeRosa has been having a very good year at second base. Derrek Lee's been having a nice year, showing flashes of 2005 when he hit .335 with 22 home runs and 82 RBIs. Geovany Soto is the undisputed NL Rookie of the Year (.294 AVG, 21 HRs, 80 RBIs) behind the plate.
The Cubs have been led by their outstanding rotation. Their top four of Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster, Rich Harden, and Ted Lilly is the best in the majors. No one in their rotation has less than nine wins. Ryan Dempster has been a big part of the rotation's success, his 15-6 record and 2.99 ERA with 167 strikeouts has him in CY Young consideration (he doesn't hold a candle to CC Sabathia or Tim Lincecum though). In the bullpen Kerry Wood was shaky early but rebounded nicely to have 28 saves and a 2.81 ERA on the season. Carlos Marmol has been lights out at his set-up man. The rest of the bullpen has been below average, but the back-end is one of the best in baseball.
At this point, you can count out the St. Louis Cardinals. They kept it close but have really fallen off of late, they are not catching either of these two teams. The Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros, and Cincinnati Reds have long been out of contention.
Analysis: I'm surprised the Brewers have kept it as close as they have. They have been losing steam of late, the recent sweep by the New York Mets hasn't helped. The Brewers have remained resilient all season and I expect that to continue though I do not expect them to catch the Cubs. Though the Cubs have also been slipping of late, they will win the NL Central. The Brewers will take the Wild Card. Nothing could possibly happen to keep the Cubbies from the NLCs, but then again they still are the Cubs.
Take care all and as always.....Comment!!!!
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7 comments:
I can't see giving Sabathia the Cy Young Award. The guy has pitched 88 innings in the NL so far -- granted, he has been amazing, but 88 IP.
Consider it this way, if the Brewers win every single one of his starts, that amounts to about 15 or 16 Wins.
If Lincecum is awesome for 25 starts and just great for 10, I still have to give the upper hand to Lincecum.
Sabathia has 11 NL win-shares. Lincecum has 22. Brandon Webb has 20. Dan Haren has 18. Johan Santana has 15. Ben Sheets has 14.
Even Rich Harden, who has two fewer NL starts than Sabathia, is only five win-shares short. That's not to say that Harden's been as good as Sabathia, but it isn't as drastic of a difference as it seems.
Sabathia has been awesome, and has been the best pitcher in the majors, but he hasn't been the best in the AL or the NL. People say that it isn't fair to punish someone for being traded, but he was traded from the Indians to the Brewers.
I think foregoing a Cy Young Award is probably worth it to pitch for a contender. And if it hadn't been worth it, maybe he should have accepted the contract he was offered in the offseason.
. . . in fact, Sabathia actually only has 20 win shares combined AL/NL, so he's still behind Lincecum.
Sabathia is a more valid MVP canidate than Cy Young canidate since the MVP race currently lacks an obvious option...it'd be something if the NL MVP was CC and the AL MVP was K-Rod
george --
I agree that it would be something if CC was NLMVP and KROD was ALMVP, just so long as you agree on that something being a travesty.
Back in the 80's a bunch of relief pitchers won MVP awards. Bill James likened giving relief pitchers MVP awards to giving pinch hitters MVP awards. Now, it's not exactly the same thing, perhaps, but he does make a point . . .
-wal
By the way --
Mike Pelfrey has 10 win-shares.
-wal
Yeah I see how Bill James would have likened giving relievers MVP awards to giving pinch hitters MVP awards.
While the Closer, is the most overrated role in baseball, it has transformed how teams run their pitching staffs. It's just new age baseball whether its right or not, its just what it's evolved into.
Though a closer should still only be considered for MVP if he's doing something no one has before, like K-Rod has. K-Rod deserves it as much as anyone.
no way does K-Rod deserve the mvp more than an entire slew of other pitchers.
K-Rod: 59.3 IP; 1.23 WHIP; 2.43 ERA (178 ERA+); 2-2; 54 SV
Cliff Lee: 194.3 IP; 1.05 WHIP; 2.32 ERA (190 ERA+); 20-2; 4 CG (2 SHO)
Roy Halladay: 218 IP; 1.041 WHIP; 2.64 ERA (162 ERA+); 18-9; 8 CG (2 SHO)
Mariano Rivera: 61.7 IP; 0.697 WHIP; 1.46 ERA (292 ERA+); 5-5; 32 SV
That's just three pitchers (one of whom is a relief pitcher) who are far and away better than K-Rod this year. As I previously said, Papelbon and Nathan have both been better.
Giving a guy the MVP because he saves the most games is -- as we said -- like giving a guy the MVP because he leads the league in Pinch-Homeruns. In fact, pinch-homeruns are at least a game-changing thing, whereas when you earn a save the game is generally not even in doubt.
Real quick, finally (and for the last time):
Win-Shares (source: http://hardballtimes.com/)
K-Rod: 9 (5 Win-Shares above Bench)
Lee: 20 (16 Win-Shares above Bench)
Halladay: 19 (14 Win-Shares above Bench)
Rivera: 13 (9 Win-Shares above Bench)
Papelbon: 12 (7 Win-Shares above Bench)
Nathan: 11 (7 Win-Shares above Bench)
And, just for the hell of it:
Scott Downs: 9 (5 Win-Shares above Bench)
. . . so K-Rod doesn't deserve the MVP as much as anyone, he deserves it as much as . . . Scott Downs. Who has had an absolutely fantastic year . . . for a setup man.
In summation, relief pitchers don't deserve MVP awards.
-wal
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