The awards season is over - How did I do?

Now that the MVPs have been announced and Twitter has been through a day of name-calling ("Stupid" and "Moron" the most common), we have our full slate of awards for the season. I wanted to take a second to look back at my choices and see how I came out next to the BBWAA and the BBA. So I took a look at my picks and all in all, there was not a whole lot of disagreement.

The BBA differed from the BBWAA in two areas. The BBA had John Farrell for its best manager in the American League for 2013 and had Mike Trout as the best player in the American League. I differed from both organizations on two accounts each, which is sort of weird.

I had Yasiel Puig as my rookie in the National League and I had Mike Trout as the best AL player. But my manager picks both agreed with the BBWAA manager picks. Both the BBWAA and BBA had Jose Fernandez as the NL's best rookie so there was a disconnect for me with both organizations. I differed on Trout with the BBWAA and on Farrell with the BBA.

There was some division caused by the NL rookie voting, but nothing like the vitriol caused by the Trout versus Miguel Cabrera camps. The passion displayed by both sides is really heated and frankly, I find the name-calling distasteful. There is some disconnect out there on how to rate players that many have dubbed an old-school versus new-school debate.

That is unfortunate because it is divisive. Yes, Trout has not received the ultimate recognition but he did win the Silver Slugger Award and came in second in the BBWAA voting, so that is hardly sheep dip. I believe he is the best player in the American League for the second season in a row. But the fact is that 99.8% of those who voted in either organization do so because they write about a sport they love. There are simply some who disagree on how to value players and what is important in doing so.

There is one area of agreement and that is that Miguel Cabrera is the best offensive player of this generation. He might even be the best hitter I have seen in my lifetime. So the arguments have been about the best pure hitter in baseball versus the best all-around player in the game today. I worry a bit about Cabrera's rise in slugging since 2010 because of the times we live in and I have not forgotten his alcohol-related incidents earlier in his career. I still consider those egregious and thought he got a pass by baseball.

But those are side issues and do not take away the greatness of his offensive exploits. I find the argument an interesting one on how to value Cabrera versus Trout. I just hate the name calling.

We have our awards and we have our winners. They are etched in stone for the rest of baseball immortality. Debates about the winners have been going on forever. The tone is just different. I am glad my choices were made and stick with them and am somewhat pleased that I was dead on in most of them. Of course, neither the BBA or the BBWAA have come around to adopting the Dan Meyer and Kyle Davies Awards. That is there problem. Heh.

The obscure batting awards of the 2013 MLB season

This is certainly award season on the baseball calendar and aside from all the rumors going on about who is going to sign where or get traded, there is not a whole lot else to talk about. I like to make up my own awards and apparently I have hit on something as my silly awards have led to unprecedented page views. I have covered the major categories such as the worst starting pitching, worst relief pitching and worst overall position player awards. What follows are some more obscure ones.

The Killing Two Birds with one Ball Award

Matt Holliday led both leagues in grounding into double plays. Since he plays on the Cardinals, the killing two birds thing works very nicely. Holliday created 62 outs with his 31 GIDPs. Martin Prado was second with 29 and Billy Butler led the American League with 28.

I like to put these kinds of things into percentages and Holliday also led the majors in GIDP as a percentage of his plate appearances. His rate turned out to be 5.1%. Erik Kratz of the Phillies had only 68 games with the Phillies and still managed to hit into 11 double plays for a 5.0% rate. David Freese was third with a 4.8% rate followed by the only other two over four percent: Prado at 4.4% and Butler at 4.2%.

The Crime Doesn't Pay Award

I forget what the prevailing wisdom is on what stealing success rate is acceptable. Was it 70%? Whatever it is, none of these dudes came close. I don't know if these players tried to steal bases on their own or were sent by their managers. Whichever the case, they should stop. My cut off line was five caught steals. After all, you cannot punish a guy for just trying a couple of times. But if we go by 30% as an acceptable fail rate, the following players, of course, go beyond unacceptable with their fail rates:

1. 53.8% fail rate: Manny Machado - Six stolen bases in 13 attempts. Robbie Grossman of the Astros had the exact same numbers.
2. 50% fail rate: Brandon Barnes (11, 22), Gerardo Parra (10,20) and Yoenis Cespedes (7,14)
3. 47.6% fail rate: Adeiny Hechavarria (11, 21) Was there anything Adeiny did well in 2013??
4. 45.5% fail rate: Anthony Rizzo, Andrelton Simmons, Todd Frazier (all 6, 11)
5. 42.4% fail rate: Ian Kinsler (15, 26). Does Ron Washington have a don't steal sign?
6. 42.1% fail rate: Yasiel Puig (11, 19). The man did run into some outs.

The Down and Outs Award

This award goes to the player who created the most outs with his plate appearances in 2013. Outs are recorded by the number of times a player gets himself out plus caught stealing, sacrifice flies and sacrifice bunts. Our winner is Starlin Castro of the Cubs with 530 outs created. Manny Machado was second with 500 and Mark Trumbo third with 495. 

The Swing Batter Batter Swing Award

Let's face it. There are some baseball players who go up to the plate hacking. They are not interested in working the count or anything like that. Life is short and they are going to swing the bat. The lowest walk percentages this season:

1. A.J. Pierzynski - 2.1%
2. Alcides Escobar - 3.0%
3. Wilin Rosario - 3.2%
4. Yuniesky Betancourt - 3.4%
5. Adam Jones and J.P. Arencibia - 3.6%

The batters with the highest swing percentage at balls out of the strike zone were: 

1. A.J. Pierzynski - 49.6%
2. Pablo Sandoval - 45.5%
3. Adam Jones - 44.9%
4. Alfonso Soriano - 43.3%
5. Nolan Arenado - 42.8%

The Woe is My wOBA Award

The worst five wOBA statistic recorded in 2013 with a minimum of 400 plate appearances:

1. Pete Kozma - .241
2. Alcides Escobar - .247
3. Adeiny Hechavarria - .251
4. Darwin Barney - .252 (555 plate appearances)
5. B.J. Upton - .252 (446 plate appearances)

The Hey Your Infield Fly Is Open Award

The highest infield fly ball percentages were:

1. Vernon Wells: 20.3%
2. B.J. Upton: 19.7%
3. Andrelton Simmons: 17.8%
4. Jose Bautista. Josh Willingham: 17.6%

The Hit It Where There Are No Screws Award

The lowest line drive percentages in the MLB in 2013 were:

1. Dan Uggla - 13.2%
2. Kelly Johnson - 15.2%
3. Juan Lagares - 15.7%
4. Yuniesky Betancourt, Jose Bautista - 16.1%

The Hitting 'Em Where They Are Awards

The five lowest BABIPs of 2013 go to:

1. Darwin Barney - .222
2. Dan Uggla - .225
3. Yuniesky Betancourt - .226
4. David Murphy - .227
5. J.P. Arencibia - .231

The Stirring the Breeze Award

These five players led the Majors in swinging and missing as rated by their swing and miss percentage:

1. Yasiel Puig - 16.9%
2. Pedro Alvarez - 16.4%
3. Josh Hamilton - 16.2%
4. Chris Carter - 15.5%
5. B.J. Upton - 15.3%

The Calculator Not Needed to Total Bases Award

The three lowest total bases accumulated for batters with more than 400 plate appearances were:

1. Pete Kozma - 112
2. B.J. Upton - 113
3. Placido Polanco - 114

Nobody else was under 130.

The Ultimate Sacrifice Award

The most total combined sacrifice bunts and sacrifice flies were:

1. Zack Cosart - 23 (13 sacrifice bunts plus 10 sacrifice flies)
2. Elvis Andrus - 22 (16 sacrifice bunts plus 6 sacrifice flies)

The RC Coda Award

RC stands for Runs Created and it is a Bill James statistic for estimating a players contribution to the overall runs a team scored. These two players created the least amount of runs for their team according to B-R:

• Darwin Barney - 37 in 555 plate appearances
• Adeinny Hechavarria - 38 in 578 plate appearances

The Punching Judy Award

Pete Kozma became only the third player in this century to record a slugging percentage under .275 with more than 400 plate appearances. The other two were Cesar Izturis in 2010 (.268) and Nick Punto in 2007 (.271).

The At Least I Jacked One Award

This was the first season since 2008 where every batter over 400 plate appearances hit at least one homer. But two guys only hit one homer in 2013. Those would be Pete Kozma and Placido Polanco

The Three Outcome Heroes Award

The following players had the highest percentage of their plate appearances being walks+strikeouts+homers:

1. Chris Carter - 53.2%
2. Dan Uggla - 50.3%
3. Mike Napoli - 49.8%
4. Adam Dunn - 49.2%

Yasiel Puig draws a walk

There are times during the course of watching a broadcast of Major League Baseball when you are an English major with a mind that wanders can lead to unexpected thoughts. For example, I was watching the Cardinals play the Dodgers in Game 4 of their National League Championship Series and the seemingly innocuous happenstance (I had to use those words to prove I was an English major) of Yasiel Puig taking a walk occurred. That led to the time honored cliche from the announcers lips that, "Puig draws a walk." I completely forgot about the importance of that walk and the weirdness that Puig would actually take four pitches and instead focused on that weird cliche. "Puig draws a walk."

Being of the curious sort, I then decided to look at the word, "draw," in the dictionary. Well, I did not actually look at a dictionary. Nobody does that anymore. I went to a dictionary site online. To my astonishment, there are 47 different uses listed for the word. Twenty more and it would have been ketchup. Just in case you might be interested in all the usages, I list them all here as culled from TheFreeDictionary.com. Let's see where the walk fits (my thoughts in red).

draw  (drô)

v. drew (dr), drawn (drôn), draw·ing, draws

v.tr.

1.

a. To cause to move after or toward one by applying continuous force; drag: drew the chair closer to the table; a team of horses drawing a wagon. See Synonyms atpull. As in the Cardinals drew the Dodgers closer to elimination.

b. To cause to move in a given direction or to a given position, as by leading: The teacher drew the children into the room to see the decorations.

c. To move or pull so as to cover or uncover something: draw the curtains. In this series, the Cardinals drew the Dodgers' offensive weaknesses?

2. To cause to flow forth: a pump drawing water; a blow that drew blood. The Shane Robinson homer drew blood.

3. To suck or take in (air, for example); inhale. What Dodger fans did on Matt Holliday's homer.

4. To require (a specified depth of water) for floating: a boat drawing 18 inches.  The Dodgers' boat is sinking.

5. To take or pull out: drew a gun from beneath the counter; drew out a fat wallet. Every baseball player can draw out a fat wallet. Some fatter than others.

6.

a. To extract or take for one's own use: draw strength from one's friends. What the Cardinals do by bringing in Trevor Rosenthal?

b. To make (tea) by steeping. I cannot imagine ballplayers steeping tea.

7. To eviscerate; disembowel.  What Nick Punto did to his team when he got picked off.

8.

a. To cause to come by attracting; attract: afraid the casino will draw undesirable elements to the town.

b. To select or take in from a given group, type, or region: draw clients from all levels of society. The Cardinals draw intense, passionate, irrational and sometimes unsporting fans. But we still haven't gotten to the walk.

9. To bring to a certain condition or action; lead: drawn to despair; drew them to resign. What the Cardinals are doing to Dodger fans.

10. To bring about deliberately; provoke: draw enemy fire; draw a penalty on an opponent. Adrian Gonzalez and Yasiel Puig drew cries of foul by Cardinal players. P.S. Get over it.

11. To evoke as a response; elicit: a performance that drew jeers from the audience. Don Mattingly's decision-making is drawing questions.

12. To earn; gain: deposits that draw interest at a rate of 5 percent. Hmm...Maybe this is the ticket for Puig's walk.

13.

a. To withdraw (money).

b. To use (a check, for example) when paying.

c. To receive on a regular basis or at a specified time: draw a pension.  I don't want to talk about ballplayer's money anymore.

14. To take or receive by chance: draw lots. Jon Jay helped the Dodgers draw good fortune with his outfield play in Game 3.

15. Games

a. To take (cards) from a dealer or central stack.

b. To force (a card) to be played. Mattingly going with Ricky Nolasco seemed like a forced card.

16. To end or leave (a contest) tied or undecided. This only happens at All Star Games.

17. Sports

a. To hit or strike (a billiard ball, for example) so as to give it backspin. Holliday's homer had backspin.

b. To hit (a golf ball) with a draw.

18. To pull back the string of (a bow).

19. To distort the shape of.

20. To stretch taut.

21.

a. To flatten, stretch, or mold (metal) by hammering or die stamping. See Holliday's baseball.

b. To shape or elongate (a wire, for example) by pulling through dies. What Mike Matheny did with the Cardinals bullpen this season.

22.

a. To inscribe (a line or lines) with a pencil or other marking implement. What Robinson will do to his home run baseball before it goes on his mantle.

b. To make a likeness of on a surface, using mostly lines; depict with lines: drew a map of the area; drawing landscapes and still lifes.

c. To portray in writing or speech; depict with words: draws moving scenes of ghetto life. Puig's emotional reactions on the field draw from his Cuban baseball heritage.

23. To formulate or devise from evidence or data at hand: draw a comparison. I have been drawing a comparison between Shane Robinson and Jon Jay all series.

24. To compose or write out in legal format: draw a deed. The 2013 Dodgers are drawing their last will and testament. 

v.intr.

1. To proceed or move steadily: a ship drawing near the shore. The Cardinals are drawing near an NL Pennant. 

2. To attract customers or spectators: The new play is drawing well. These two teams always draw well.

3. To pour forth liquid: The patient's veins don't draw easily. If this was the movie, The Natural, Hanley Ramirez's rib would be doing this.

4. To cause suppuration. This has to do with pus, which I don't want to talk about. Let's just call suppuration what southerners call what is happening between the Cardinals and the Dodgers.

5. To take in a draft of air: The flue isn't drawing. Not going to the Punto well again.

6. To steep in or as if in the manner of tea. Okay, now we are repeating ourselves.

7. To pull out a weapon for use.

8. To use or call upon part of a fund or supply: drawing on an account; drew from the experience of fellow workers.

9. To contract or tighten: material that draws when it dries. The Cardinals are drawing the noose.

10. To conclude a contest without either side winning; tie: The chess players drew in 32 moves.

11. To make a likeness with lines on a surface; sketch.

n.

1.

a. An act of drawing.

b. The result of drawing.

2. Something drawn, especially a lot, card, or cards drawn at random. A Puig walk is certainly random.

3. Sports & Games

a. The arrangement of competitors in a tournament in which the match-ups are made at random.

b. A match-up or opponent in such a tournament.

4. An inhalation, especially through a pipe or other smoking implement. What a certain Indians' relief pitcher does.

5. One that attracts interest, customers, or spectators: a singer who is a popular draw.

6. The movable part of a drawbridge.

7. A special advantage; an edge: have the draw on one's enemies. Cardinals' offense qualifies here.

8. A contest ending without either side winning.

9. A small natural depression that water drains into; a shallow gully. What Jon Jay is digging.

10. Football A play in which the quarterback drops back as if to pass and then hands off to a running back.

11. Sports A face-off.

12.

a. Games A draw shot.

b. Sports A moderate, usually controlled hook in golf.

We have gone through 47 definitions and only one seemed to fit. It looks like Yasiel Puig earned that walk. But then again, maybe the pitcher just gave it to him. Why do I do these things to myself?

MLB Game Picks - Wednesday: June 5, 2013

The picks had a much better day yesterday despite a rash of extra inning games. Two of the three of those went for me (thank you Andrelton Simmons and John Mayberry Jr.) and one went against. I was excited about Tyler Skaggs versus Michael Wacha and both got knocked silly, so that did not pan out. Matt Moore got rocked. Whoops. Tim Lincecum saved his rotation spot for another day. It was an interesting day of baseball for sure.

Today is getaway day for twelve teams and six of the games are day games. Sweet. What else will Yasiel Puig do? Holy cow, eh? Here are Wednesday's picks:

• The Braves over the Pirates: While this Pirates team is better than the ones that folded the last couple of seasons, they are finding that the Braves are the better team. While I like picking Wandy Rodriguez on my outings, this one has to go to the Braves for the sweep. Julio Teheran will try to make that happen.
• The Yankees over the Indians: In another sweep attempt, I might as well go all giddy and pick for the Yankees. CC Sabathia will try to build on his last terrific outing and a very good Corey Kluber will try to keep his string of good pitching going.
• The Phillies over the Marlins: The 1-9 Cole Hamels has to get a win some time. Otherwise, this is about as surreal as it gets. Jacob Turner had about as good a first outing his last time out for the Marlins as you could ask for. But the Phillies are starting to hit better.
• The Brewers over the Athletics: Once again, I cannot find in myself the ability to pick against Yovani Gallardo at home. He has simply been too good there over the years. And Bartolo Colon has one clunker of an outing for every three good ones, so the ratio says that he is due.
• The Mariners over the White Sox: Raul Ibanez and Kendrys Morales are about as hot as hitters can get right now and Hisashi Iwakuma should take care of the rest. Young Dylan Axelrod will not be able to keep up.
• The Giants over the Blue Jays: Last night was a microcosm of the Blue Jays' season. Edwin Encarnacion hit a bomb of a homer to dead center field. Then, later, he hit a grounder to short that was booted and he still got thrown out because he did not hustle. Not acceptable and a symptom of why this team is underachieving. Barry Zito against R.A. Dickey is an unsettling pitching line though.
• The Cubs over the Angels: This is the upset pick of the day. Matt Garza is auditioning for a stretch run trade to a contender and has looked great. Jason Vargas can have good games but can have bad ones too. I think Alfonso Soriano gets a hold of one in this game.
• The Nationals over the Mets: Now that Dillon Gee is not pitching against the Yankees, he will revert back to form and that is not good for the Mets. Dan Haren is not a shut down starter anymore, but will keep the Nats in the game so they can win it.
• The Tigers over the Bay Rays: Unless the Tigers used up all their offense last night, they should take this one as long as the good Doug Fister shows up. Doug Fister versus Alex Cobb is actually a very good match-up, so it will be interesting to see which one has the better night. It is a toss up.
• The Reds over the Rockies: Last night's game got away from the Reds and from a correct pick. But this one should not be close as Johnny Cueto should pitch a good game and Jon Garland gives up his typical four or five runs.
• The Red Sox over the Rangers: On a podcast I did the other day, I mentioned that I liked the way John Lackey was throwing. So I have to put my picks where my mouth is. Alexi Ogando's health is always a concern and there was some talk that he would miss this start. That makes me leery.
• The Orioles over the Astros: Wow! I am not real down with this pitching line of Freddy Garcia against Dallas Keuchel. This will be a shooting match with the Orioles having a bit more fireworks on their barge than the Astros.
• The Royals over the Twins: The Royals are about as moribund as a team can get. No life. No spark. Deadsville. But I still believe in Jeremy Guthrie and I still do not believe in P.J. Walters. After all, how can I pick a guy named after sleepwear?
• The Diamondbacks over the Cardinals: I do not like what I see in this one for the Cardinals. Their bullpen is toasted and one of those bullpen arms, Joe Kelly, makes a spot start. Not ideal. Wade Miley has really struggled in the last month. He is a finesse guy and needs to get it back on the black.

And the Game of the Day!

• The Dodgers over the Padres: This is the Yasiel Puig show and we are all just spectators. Not only that, but Clayton Kershaw is pitching at home. Yee Haw, Kershaw! I do not think it will matter how good or bad Jason Marquis pitches. We are simply watching a spectacle right now.

Yesterday: 10-5

Week: 23-18

Month: 33-22

Season: 495-372

Games of the Day: 40-23