Can I Have Some Ridiculous Rumors Please?
The offseason has been so boring thus far. Like, ridiculously boring.
Winter Meetings need to hurry up and get here. That's when the REALLY strange rumors start coming out of the woodwork. Like last year when there was the rumor the Sox were trading Jermaine Dye for Homer Bailey straight up. That was just NOT gonna happen. Not straight up anyway.
I've already heard a Sox rumor this offseason that's a little...out there, to say the least. I don't know all the particulars, but it involved a three-way trade with Paul Konerko going to the Angels, a bunch of Angels prospects going to the Padres, and Adrian Gonzalez coming to the White Sox. Pretending this rumor had any basis in reality (apparently it was semi-rumored a while back and was completely shot down), why would the Padres let their star go? Gonzalez is REALLY good. Like for reals. I watched him enough in San Diego to know he's REALLY good. Would I like him on the White Sox? Of course. Who wouldn't want him on their team? But just because the Padres are dealing with all the stuff they're dealing with doesn't mean they're gonna get rid of ALL of their stars and fan favorites.
But until such time as Winter Meetings start, we have awards. Hooray and such.
Since my team of choice is an AL team, I don't follow the NL super closely, so I can't really comment on their Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards. But it's nice to see players I like on both of those lists.
But I can comment on the AL winners. I don't really have anything to say on the Silver Slugger winners other than I'm soooooooo not surprised by Joe Mauer's win. He's pretty much awesome...damn it. :)
Now for Gold Gloves. I'm not at all surprised that Joe Mauer, Derek Jeter, and Ichiro won. I didn't really have a favorite for second and third base, so I guess I can go along with Placido Polanco and Evan Longoria. I don't think Torii Hunter is THAT elite anymore, but apparently he is. Do I have another choice for that winner? No, not really. So I guess Torii can have it. It's pretty cool to see Adam Jones of the Orioles win it for the outfield. That's great considering the Orioles didn't do so hot this season.
The other two winners I'm gonna comment on a little more extensively. OK, so not super extensively...whatever.
I don't doubt Mark Teixeira is a good fielder. I'm sure he is. But I need to state that I'm pretty bitter that Paul Konerko didn't win it. Honestly, did you SEE our middle infield? Alexei Ramirez made a ridiculous amount of errors, and he could have made a whooooooooooooole bunch more. But Paulie saved him. TOTALLY saved him on numerous occasions. Meh. I can complain all I want...doesn't change anything.
But I LOVE the AL pitching winner. MARK BUEHRLE!!! YAY! Mark is not only an awesome pitcher, he's an awesome fielder at his position. There have been many years when Sox fans have felt he's been jipped. I have a tendency to agree with them, considering Mark is just plain awesome. I love Mark Buehrle, and I'm glad he's getting the recognition he deserves for being such a great pitcher. (Speaking of Buehrle, if you're in Chicago on Thanksgiving, Comcast SportsNet is replaying his perfect game at 7pm. Yes, my DVR is set to record it. And I'll FINALLY get to see it! I'm ridiculously excited for that.)
The Rookie of the Year awards were given out too. While Andrew Bailey and Chris Coghlan are great players since they were in contention for this, I wonder something. How are the BBWAA awards so different from The Sporting News and the MLBPA Players' Choice awards? Despite that, congrats to both players.
Now let's pretend I'm not ridiculously biased toward Gordon Beckham. Let's pretend I don't think it's utter BS that he came in fifth in voting. In fact, for this scenario, let's pretend he was never in the running in the first place. For this scenario, it was just Bailey, Elvis Andrus, Rick Porcello, Jeff Niemann, and Brett Anderson. Of those five, I'd pick Andrus first. He was great. Not saying Bailey's not great, but Andrus had a better year, I think.
End that scenario. Bring Beckham back into the mix. I'm highly HIGHLY biased towards Beckham. In my ridiculously biased mind, he should have won hands down. Considering The Sporting News and the MLBPA agree with me, I think I have a little bit of a point. But that aside, let's pretend I don't think he should have won. I do think fifth place is a little ridiculous. Beckham was called up in June and put together this amazing season. So awesome that even though he started the season in Double A, he still ended up in ROY contention. He should have been at least third, I think. Unfortunately, I can't change the outcome, but I have a feeling Beckham is gonna come back and beat the crap out of the AL. And it'll be awesome. One of my Twitter followers mentioned a while back that he wanted to get stronger so he can hit more homers. I fully support this idea. I adore adore adore Beckham, and the better he gets, the better the Sox get. And we all know I want the Sox to win everything all the time. :)
Even though I think the BBWAA got the ROYs wrong, they did get the AL Cy Young right. Zack Greinke had one hell of a season, and he totally deserves this. Congrats Zack. I'm interested to see who they pick for the NL Cy Young. It seems like Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright are the favorites. I'd pick Waino of those two. It also looks like Tim Lincecum, Javy Vazquez, and Jorge De La Rosa are also in the mix. I'd still pick Waino. But please note I'll vomit all over myself if Javy effing Vazquez wins that award. He's not THAT great of a pitcher. This is what I've noticed with Javy: when the team he's on is either mediocre or full of fail, he's an AWESOME pitcher, but when the team he's on is a good team, he suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks.
Until such time as ridiculous rumors fly around, I have to sit and deal with the crap my NFL team puts out. Luckily my NHL team is good, and it looks like my NBA team is good as well. We'll see what happens with my college football and college basketball teams. (For those who don't know my teams, NFL = Chicago Bears, NHL = Chicago Blackhawks, NBA = Chicago Bulls, college football = Florida Gators, and college basketball = Loyola Chicago Ramblers and Florida Gators.)
Photo credits: all AP
Winter Meetings need to hurry up and get here. That's when the REALLY strange rumors start coming out of the woodwork. Like last year when there was the rumor the Sox were trading Jermaine Dye for Homer Bailey straight up. That was just NOT gonna happen. Not straight up anyway.
But until such time as Winter Meetings start, we have awards. Hooray and such.
Since my team of choice is an AL team, I don't follow the NL super closely, so I can't really comment on their Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards. But it's nice to see players I like on both of those lists.
But I can comment on the AL winners. I don't really have anything to say on the Silver Slugger winners other than I'm soooooooo not surprised by Joe Mauer's win. He's pretty much awesome...damn it. :)
Now for Gold Gloves. I'm not at all surprised that Joe Mauer, Derek Jeter, and Ichiro won. I didn't really have a favorite for second and third base, so I guess I can go along with Placido Polanco and Evan Longoria. I don't think Torii Hunter is THAT elite anymore, but apparently he is. Do I have another choice for that winner? No, not really. So I guess Torii can have it. It's pretty cool to see Adam Jones of the Orioles win it for the outfield. That's great considering the Orioles didn't do so hot this season.
The other two winners I'm gonna comment on a little more extensively. OK, so not super extensively...whatever.
I don't doubt Mark Teixeira is a good fielder. I'm sure he is. But I need to state that I'm pretty bitter that Paul Konerko didn't win it. Honestly, did you SEE our middle infield? Alexei Ramirez made a ridiculous amount of errors, and he could have made a whooooooooooooole bunch more. But Paulie saved him. TOTALLY saved him on numerous occasions. Meh. I can complain all I want...doesn't change anything.
The Rookie of the Year awards were given out too. While Andrew Bailey and Chris Coghlan are great players since they were in contention for this, I wonder something. How are the BBWAA awards so different from The Sporting News and the MLBPA Players' Choice awards? Despite that, congrats to both players.
Now let's pretend I'm not ridiculously biased toward Gordon Beckham. Let's pretend I don't think it's utter BS that he came in fifth in voting. In fact, for this scenario, let's pretend he was never in the running in the first place. For this scenario, it was just Bailey, Elvis Andrus, Rick Porcello, Jeff Niemann, and Brett Anderson. Of those five, I'd pick Andrus first. He was great. Not saying Bailey's not great, but Andrus had a better year, I think.
Even though I think the BBWAA got the ROYs wrong, they did get the AL Cy Young right. Zack Greinke had one hell of a season, and he totally deserves this. Congrats Zack. I'm interested to see who they pick for the NL Cy Young. It seems like Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright are the favorites. I'd pick Waino of those two. It also looks like Tim Lincecum, Javy Vazquez, and Jorge De La Rosa are also in the mix. I'd still pick Waino. But please note I'll vomit all over myself if Javy effing Vazquez wins that award. He's not THAT great of a pitcher. This is what I've noticed with Javy: when the team he's on is either mediocre or full of fail, he's an AWESOME pitcher, but when the team he's on is a good team, he suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks.
Until such time as ridiculous rumors fly around, I have to sit and deal with the crap my NFL team puts out. Luckily my NHL team is good, and it looks like my NBA team is good as well. We'll see what happens with my college football and college basketball teams. (For those who don't know my teams, NFL = Chicago Bears, NHL = Chicago Blackhawks, NBA = Chicago Bulls, college football = Florida Gators, and college basketball = Loyola Chicago Ramblers and Florida Gators.)
Photo credits: all AP







