During the 2007 Academy Awards, Martin Scorsese earned his first Best Director win for "The Departed" after previously receiving nominations for "Raging Bull," "The Last Temptation of Christ," "Goodfellas," "Gangs of New York," and "The Aviator." The general consensus among critics and moviegoers was that the win was more of a lifetime achievement award for Mr. Scorsese than anything else because while "The Departed" was a good movie, it certainly was not the best of his career. I have seen all of the above films except for "Last Temptation," and I would certainly agree ("Goodfellas" and "Raging Bull" beat "The Departed" in my book, but it's closer with the other two). He easily could have won for any of those movies, and after 25 years of stiffing him the Academy relented and gave him an Oscar that should have already been collecting dust in his home.
In fact, I would go so far as to argue that he didn't even deserve it that year. Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" and Paul Greengrass's "United 93" were both superior films in my opinion, and either one of them would have been a better choice for Best Director. But alas, 2007 was Scorcese's time, and Eastwood had already won Best Director two years prior for "Million Dollar Baby," so the Academy didn't feel like it owned him anything.
With Oscar contenders coming out and on the way, this got my thinking about a similar instance that happened in baseball nearly three decades prior. The year was 1979, and 39 year-old slugger Willie Stargell helped lead his Pittsburgh Pirates to 98 wins and World Series victory. Although "Pops" was past his prime, he still swung a productive stick and managed to sock 32 homers and post a .281/.352/.552 line. He missed 36 games, accumulated just 2.3 WAR and didn't lead the league in any significant category. His was a fine season by a great player, but nothing special in and of itself.
Yet somehow, he earned enough MVP votes to finish in a flat-footed tie with Keith Hernandez, who beat him in every category not named home runs, while finishing ahead of guys like Dave Winfield, Mike Schmidt, George Foster, Johnny Bench, Dave Kingman, Andre Dawson, and his own teammate Dave Parker, who was three times more valuable to the Pirates with his 6.7 WAR. The voters gave Stargell extra credit for his role as a leader on the team, but Pops clearly did not deserve the NL Most Valuable Player award in 1979.
Like Scorcese, he essentially won it as a lifetime achievement award and an apology from the BBWAA. Stargell posted much better seasons in the early '70s and narrowly missed winning in 1971 (silver), '72 (bronze) and '73 (silver again). The voters stiffing him in 1973, when "Pops" enjoyed the best season of his career and led the league in doubles, home runs, RBI, slugging, OPS, and OPS+, for Pete Rose was a downright travesty.
Luckily for Stargell, he got his hardware at the end of his last productive season, meaning 1979 turned out to be his last legitimate chance at the award. He hung around for three more seasons, barely played, didn't earn a single spot on an MVP ballot, and hung up his spikes for good after 1982 with 475 career home runs.
And wouldn't you know it, the BBWAA made him a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 1988.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
What Really Doomed the Red Sox
What really doomed the Red Sox was not Terry Francona's inability to rally his demoralized players, Daniel Bard's sudden demise, or former Gold Glove winner Carl Crawford muffing a sinking liner he's caught dozens of times before.
It was not Jonathan Papelbon's ill-timed blown save, John Lackey's historically abysmal season, or the front office's inability to bring in Carlos Beltran, Ubaldo Jimenez, or Hunter Pence at the trading deadline while giving us Erik Bedard (who turned out being pretty useless with a 4.03 ERA and 1.55 WHIP over eight starts) as a consolation prize.
It was neither their horrid 2-10 start nor their cringeworthy 7-20 finish. Nor was it fate, luck, and destiny colliding for this star-crossed and star-laden (John Henry employed the services of 15 All-Stars this season) team.
No, it was none of those things. In a year where so much went so wrong for the Boston Red Sox, the crippling blow might have ocurred in the middle of June, when the first place Sox were taking off and making everyone forget their embarassing two week stretch to open the season. No one knew it at the time, but when Clay Buchholz exited his June 16th start against (who else) the Tampa Bay Rays after lasting just five innings and throwing only 81 pitches, he left with a stress fracture in his lower back.
He would never return. Buchholz landed on the 60-day DL, where he served out the remainder of the 2011 season until he was activated for the fateful 162nd game.
It was a substantial loss, obviously, but New England wasn't too worried about its baseball team back then. After all, they had just reeled off a nine game winning streak and were in the middle of a four and a half month stretch where they won 80 of the 121 games they played. That's a .661 winning percentage, folks. And if Buchholz was truly done for the season, surely Theo could work his magic and pull some strings to bring in some help at the deadline. We can shake this off, we reasoned. This team is too good, has too many weapons, is firing on all cylinders. We will persevere.
We were wrong.
I believe the loss of Clay Buchholz was the straw that broke the camel's back. Clearly this team was much more flawed than anyone could have imagined, but losing their number three starter who finished sixth in last year's AL Cy Young race and was on pace to toss 200 innings and win 14 or 15 games with a mid-three ERA simply wasn't sustainable in the long run. The already shaky rotation was reduced to Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, and a bunch of mediocre fill-ins, and just couldn't hold up over the course of the year. Francona was forced to give a combined 17 starts, essentially what Buchholz missed, to Andrew Miller (5.54 ERA, 1.82 WHIP) and Kyle Weiland (0-3, 7.66 ERA, 1.66 WHIP), not to mention an additional 23 turns to Tim Wakefield (7-8, 5.12 ERA), eight to Bedard and four to Alfredo Aceves to fill Daisuke Matsuzaka's spot in the rotation.
Granted, Buchholz was clearly not the same pitcher who won 17 games and posted a sparkling 2.33 ERA in 2010, but he was still an above average pitcher who likely would have given the Sox an additional two or three wins above the replacement level pitchers (being generous here to Miller, Weiland and co.) who filled his cleats. It's safe to say that if he had managed to remain healthy or return after a month or two on the shelf, the Red Sox would still be playing baseball right now.
Because at the end of the day, surviving the AL Beast is all about starting pitching. The Rays have a deep rotation with David Price, James Shields, and Jeremy Hellickson, while Wade Davis and Jeff Niemann are capable backend rotation guys. The Yankees have an ace in C.C. Sabathia, got great seasons from Freddy Garcia, Ivan Nova, and Bartolo Colon, and were able to overcome another disaster of a season from A.J. Burnett and an ineffective/injured Phil Hughes. With Buchholz, we had just enough, but when Boston's frontline was basically reduced to two guys, it was only a matter of time before they plunged in the standings. When that pair slipped during September we were officially out of reliable starting pitchers, and in the AL East, that gives you the same chance of success as jumping out of an airplane without a parachute.
But if they had Clay Buchholz to soften the blow, to give their rotation a little more depth and a few extra quality starts, we wouldn't be talking about the 2011 Boston Red Sox as the perpetrators of perhaps the biggest choke in baseball history.
It was not Jonathan Papelbon's ill-timed blown save, John Lackey's historically abysmal season, or the front office's inability to bring in Carlos Beltran, Ubaldo Jimenez, or Hunter Pence at the trading deadline while giving us Erik Bedard (who turned out being pretty useless with a 4.03 ERA and 1.55 WHIP over eight starts) as a consolation prize.
It was neither their horrid 2-10 start nor their cringeworthy 7-20 finish. Nor was it fate, luck, and destiny colliding for this star-crossed and star-laden (John Henry employed the services of 15 All-Stars this season) team.
No, it was none of those things. In a year where so much went so wrong for the Boston Red Sox, the crippling blow might have ocurred in the middle of June, when the first place Sox were taking off and making everyone forget their embarassing two week stretch to open the season. No one knew it at the time, but when Clay Buchholz exited his June 16th start against (who else) the Tampa Bay Rays after lasting just five innings and throwing only 81 pitches, he left with a stress fracture in his lower back.
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| Losing Buchholz proved to be the devastating blow |
It was a substantial loss, obviously, but New England wasn't too worried about its baseball team back then. After all, they had just reeled off a nine game winning streak and were in the middle of a four and a half month stretch where they won 80 of the 121 games they played. That's a .661 winning percentage, folks. And if Buchholz was truly done for the season, surely Theo could work his magic and pull some strings to bring in some help at the deadline. We can shake this off, we reasoned. This team is too good, has too many weapons, is firing on all cylinders. We will persevere.
We were wrong.
I believe the loss of Clay Buchholz was the straw that broke the camel's back. Clearly this team was much more flawed than anyone could have imagined, but losing their number three starter who finished sixth in last year's AL Cy Young race and was on pace to toss 200 innings and win 14 or 15 games with a mid-three ERA simply wasn't sustainable in the long run. The already shaky rotation was reduced to Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, and a bunch of mediocre fill-ins, and just couldn't hold up over the course of the year. Francona was forced to give a combined 17 starts, essentially what Buchholz missed, to Andrew Miller (5.54 ERA, 1.82 WHIP) and Kyle Weiland (0-3, 7.66 ERA, 1.66 WHIP), not to mention an additional 23 turns to Tim Wakefield (7-8, 5.12 ERA), eight to Bedard and four to Alfredo Aceves to fill Daisuke Matsuzaka's spot in the rotation.
Granted, Buchholz was clearly not the same pitcher who won 17 games and posted a sparkling 2.33 ERA in 2010, but he was still an above average pitcher who likely would have given the Sox an additional two or three wins above the replacement level pitchers (being generous here to Miller, Weiland and co.) who filled his cleats. It's safe to say that if he had managed to remain healthy or return after a month or two on the shelf, the Red Sox would still be playing baseball right now.
Because at the end of the day, surviving the AL Beast is all about starting pitching. The Rays have a deep rotation with David Price, James Shields, and Jeremy Hellickson, while Wade Davis and Jeff Niemann are capable backend rotation guys. The Yankees have an ace in C.C. Sabathia, got great seasons from Freddy Garcia, Ivan Nova, and Bartolo Colon, and were able to overcome another disaster of a season from A.J. Burnett and an ineffective/injured Phil Hughes. With Buchholz, we had just enough, but when Boston's frontline was basically reduced to two guys, it was only a matter of time before they plunged in the standings. When that pair slipped during September we were officially out of reliable starting pitchers, and in the AL East, that gives you the same chance of success as jumping out of an airplane without a parachute.
But if they had Clay Buchholz to soften the blow, to give their rotation a little more depth and a few extra quality starts, we wouldn't be talking about the 2011 Boston Red Sox as the perpetrators of perhaps the biggest choke in baseball history.
Patriots Pillage Raiders
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| Wes Welker scores his fifth TD of the season |
Brady's numbers dipped a bit from the season's first three games as the Patriots focused more on their running game. Critics had argued the Pats were becoming a one-dimensional team by relying so heavily on Brady, making him throw the ball 40+ times a game, but yesterday's 31-19 victory over the Raiders showed New England can still get the job done on the ground. Green-Ellis continued his fine season by rushing for a touchdown and 75 yards on 16 carries, while Stevan Ridley made the most out of his ten carries by running for 97 yards and a touchdown.
Wes Welker enjoyed another monster game by racking up 158 receiving yards and a touchdown on just nine catches. On the other side of the ball, the defense, which has been somewhat disappointing to date, effectively suppressed Oakland's running game, a 30 yard run from Jacoby Ford notwithstanding. And while they allowed Jason Campbell to throw for 344 yards on 25/39 passing, Safety Patrick Chung came up with a big interception in the end zone late in the first half to preserve New England's 17-10 advantage.
The Pats improved to 3-1 on the young season with the victory, and they'll have to be at their best when the Jets (2-2) come to town this holiday weekend for a divisional clash. The game will be on CBS at 4:15.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Pain in Title Town
Much has been made recently about Boston's ascendance to the top of the sports world, and with good reason. Beantown's four major sports teams have netted seven championships since in the past decade, leading many to dub the Hub as the number one sports city on the planet. So when the Red Sox completed their historic meltdown last week, very few people outside of New England felt too sorry for us. After all, we probably deserved a little reality check, a reminder that not every season can end with shiny trophies, diamond rings, and boat rides through the narrow streets of Boston.
But life in Title Town, USA has not always been full of sunshine and roses over the past few years. Yes, we've had our wins, but we've also suffered some terrible bumps and bruises along the way. I could mention the Aaron Boone debacle of 2003, but I felt like 2008 would be a more appropriate place to start.
2008
This year will be remembered because the Boston Celtics raised their franchise's seventeenth championship banner, but just the first since 1986, when Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce took down Kobe Bryant's favored Lakers in six games.
But just four months earlier, New England suffered heartbreak when their Patriots lost Super Bowl XLII and their 19-0 season to the New York Giants, who rallied from a four point deficit with 2:42 remaining in the season. Nearly five years later, this game still induces nightmares. There's Eli Manning emerging from the pocket unscathed and as defenders fly at him and tug at his jersey, but can't bring him down. There are roughly 421 holding penalties on the Giants that go uncalled by the refs. And then there's David Tyree catching the ball off his freaking helmet. There was just so much going on that season, with SpyGate and Randy Moss and all the new records, that the pressure became almost unbearable. The Patriots had to win. And naturally, they didn't. Many said they got what they deserved for their foul play and proclivity for running up the score on opposing teams, and this bad karma carried over into the fall, when Tom Brady shredded his left knee in the season opener.
And if that wasn't bad enough, the Bruins lost Game Seven in the Conference Quarterfinals to the Canadiens. Then in October, the reigning World Series champs let the plucky Tampa Bay Rays, the Cinderella team that had gone from last place in '07 to the top of the AL Beast in '08, stomp all over them for the first four and a half games. B.J. Upton and Evan Longoria were teeing off like it was batting practice, and the Sox looked dead in the water when the Rays, up 3-1 in the series, took a commanding 7-0 lead in the seventh inning of Game Five. Just nine outs from elimination, Boston rallied for the Fenway Faithful and scored eight runs over the final three innings, winning on a J.D. Drew walk-off single. Then they won Game Six behind Josh Beckett and drew first blood on a Dustin Pedroia solo homer in the first inning of Game Seven, so it looked like another epic comeback in the vain of 2004 and 2007 was about to be complete. But Matt Garza and rookie David Price shut down Boston's potent lineup (who stranded eight runners), and Tampa nicked Jon Lester for three runs to take the series.
2009
Not much in the way of heartbreak, just all-around disappointment. The Patriots missed the playoffs altogether despite an impressive season from backup QB Matt Cassell. The Bruins fell in seven games to the Hurricanes in the conference semis. The Celtics lost KG to knee ailments and, after wheezing through one of the greatest postseason series ever with Derrick Rose's Chicago Bulls, couldn't summon the energy to overtake Dwight Howard's Magic in the seven game conference semfinals. The Sox got swept by the Angels, who had been our playoff doormat throughout the decade, when Jonathan Papelbon imploded and blew the save in Game Three.
2010
Boston went another 365 days without a title. The year started off on a bad note when the Pats got destroyed by the Ravens in the Wild Card Playoffs, and then the Bruins tortured the city by blowing a 3-0 lead against the Flyers in the second round of the playoffs. Worst of all, they jumped out to a 3-0 lead in Game Seven, only to watch it disappear and turn into a numbing defeat. 2010 Marked the third straight season for the Bruins that ended with a Game Seven loss.
A month later, the Celtics took a 3-2 Finals lead to Los Angeles and were poised to win an eighteenth banner in enemy territory, but Kendrick Perkins blew out his knee early in Game Six and Boston got crushed. They enjoyed a nice start in Game Seven and appeared to be in control for most of the game. They held a 13 point advantage about halfway through the third quarter, but Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom were killing us on the glass and Rasheed Wallace couldn't fill the massive hole in the paint left behind by Perkins. The refs swallowed their whistles in what turned out to be one of the sloppiest games of basketball in recent memory, and the aging Celts simply ran out of gas against a much bigger and more physical Lakers squad.
The Red Sox missed the playoffs after suffering devastating injuries to Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Josh Beckett.
2011
An overachieving and young Patriots squad (14-2) lost to the Jets by a touchdown in the divisional playoffs. After sweeping Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and Chauncey Billups aside in the first round, the Celtics never showed up for their series with Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh and bowed out in five games. Rajon Rondo basically played with one arm, and the old Big Three showed its age against the new Big Three.
The Bruins salvaged the year by winning the Stanley Cup, their first since 1972, but the Red Sox ruined it by blowing a nine game Wild Card lead over the season's final month to those pesky Rays. The pitching stunk, the hitting was hot-and-cold and the fielding turned shaky for a team that had been guaranteed a spot in the postseason after adding Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford. These were the Red Sox of old, the ones who gagged made a 14 game lead vanish in 1978, who couldn't finish off the Mets in '86 and couldn't put away the Yankees in '03. They were chokers, bums, and we should have known it was coming when David Ortiz pressed the panic button. This wound is still too fresh to talk about.
See that, world? We get our fair share of misery in Boston too.
But life in Title Town, USA has not always been full of sunshine and roses over the past few years. Yes, we've had our wins, but we've also suffered some terrible bumps and bruises along the way. I could mention the Aaron Boone debacle of 2003, but I felt like 2008 would be a more appropriate place to start.
2008
This year will be remembered because the Boston Celtics raised their franchise's seventeenth championship banner, but just the first since 1986, when Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce took down Kobe Bryant's favored Lakers in six games.
But just four months earlier, New England suffered heartbreak when their Patriots lost Super Bowl XLII and their 19-0 season to the New York Giants, who rallied from a four point deficit with 2:42 remaining in the season. Nearly five years later, this game still induces nightmares. There's Eli Manning emerging from the pocket unscathed and as defenders fly at him and tug at his jersey, but can't bring him down. There are roughly 421 holding penalties on the Giants that go uncalled by the refs. And then there's David Tyree catching the ball off his freaking helmet. There was just so much going on that season, with SpyGate and Randy Moss and all the new records, that the pressure became almost unbearable. The Patriots had to win. And naturally, they didn't. Many said they got what they deserved for their foul play and proclivity for running up the score on opposing teams, and this bad karma carried over into the fall, when Tom Brady shredded his left knee in the season opener.
And if that wasn't bad enough, the Bruins lost Game Seven in the Conference Quarterfinals to the Canadiens. Then in October, the reigning World Series champs let the plucky Tampa Bay Rays, the Cinderella team that had gone from last place in '07 to the top of the AL Beast in '08, stomp all over them for the first four and a half games. B.J. Upton and Evan Longoria were teeing off like it was batting practice, and the Sox looked dead in the water when the Rays, up 3-1 in the series, took a commanding 7-0 lead in the seventh inning of Game Five. Just nine outs from elimination, Boston rallied for the Fenway Faithful and scored eight runs over the final three innings, winning on a J.D. Drew walk-off single. Then they won Game Six behind Josh Beckett and drew first blood on a Dustin Pedroia solo homer in the first inning of Game Seven, so it looked like another epic comeback in the vain of 2004 and 2007 was about to be complete. But Matt Garza and rookie David Price shut down Boston's potent lineup (who stranded eight runners), and Tampa nicked Jon Lester for three runs to take the series.
2009
Not much in the way of heartbreak, just all-around disappointment. The Patriots missed the playoffs altogether despite an impressive season from backup QB Matt Cassell. The Bruins fell in seven games to the Hurricanes in the conference semis. The Celtics lost KG to knee ailments and, after wheezing through one of the greatest postseason series ever with Derrick Rose's Chicago Bulls, couldn't summon the energy to overtake Dwight Howard's Magic in the seven game conference semfinals. The Sox got swept by the Angels, who had been our playoff doormat throughout the decade, when Jonathan Papelbon imploded and blew the save in Game Three.
2010
Boston went another 365 days without a title. The year started off on a bad note when the Pats got destroyed by the Ravens in the Wild Card Playoffs, and then the Bruins tortured the city by blowing a 3-0 lead against the Flyers in the second round of the playoffs. Worst of all, they jumped out to a 3-0 lead in Game Seven, only to watch it disappear and turn into a numbing defeat. 2010 Marked the third straight season for the Bruins that ended with a Game Seven loss.
A month later, the Celtics took a 3-2 Finals lead to Los Angeles and were poised to win an eighteenth banner in enemy territory, but Kendrick Perkins blew out his knee early in Game Six and Boston got crushed. They enjoyed a nice start in Game Seven and appeared to be in control for most of the game. They held a 13 point advantage about halfway through the third quarter, but Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom were killing us on the glass and Rasheed Wallace couldn't fill the massive hole in the paint left behind by Perkins. The refs swallowed their whistles in what turned out to be one of the sloppiest games of basketball in recent memory, and the aging Celts simply ran out of gas against a much bigger and more physical Lakers squad.
The Red Sox missed the playoffs after suffering devastating injuries to Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Josh Beckett.
2011
An overachieving and young Patriots squad (14-2) lost to the Jets by a touchdown in the divisional playoffs. After sweeping Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and Chauncey Billups aside in the first round, the Celtics never showed up for their series with Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh and bowed out in five games. Rajon Rondo basically played with one arm, and the old Big Three showed its age against the new Big Three.
The Bruins salvaged the year by winning the Stanley Cup, their first since 1972, but the Red Sox ruined it by blowing a nine game Wild Card lead over the season's final month to those pesky Rays. The pitching stunk, the hitting was hot-and-cold and the fielding turned shaky for a team that had been guaranteed a spot in the postseason after adding Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford. These were the Red Sox of old, the ones who gagged made a 14 game lead vanish in 1978, who couldn't finish off the Mets in '86 and couldn't put away the Yankees in '03. They were chokers, bums, and we should have known it was coming when David Ortiz pressed the panic button. This wound is still too fresh to talk about.
See that, world? We get our fair share of misery in Boston too.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
25 Fun Stats
I haven't done one of these in over a month, and since the regular season is over I figure this is my last chance until next spring. Thank you baseball-reference, mlb.com and espn.com in assisting me with the facts and figures.
1. Clayton Kershaw won the NL Pitching Triple Crown with 21 wins, 248 strikeouts and a sparkling 2.28 ERA. He also topped the Senior Circuit in WHIP and H/9 with 0.977 and 6.7 marks, respectively. His season was basically just as good as a certain Tigers' ace, but few people seemed to talk about it since he didn't throw a no-hitter, played on a mediocre team and pitched in a pitcher's park
2. Justin Verlander won the NL Pitching Triple Crown with 24 victories, 250 punchouts and a 2.40 ERA. He also led the Junior Circuit in winning percentage (.828), games started (34), ERA+ (170), WHIP (0.92) and H/9 (6.2). He still doesn't deserve the MVP, not when his season isn't any more impressive than what Johan Santana, Jake Peavy, Roger Clemens, and Pedro Martinez have done in the past decade
3. A pitcher won the triple crown in each league for the first time since Walter Johnson and Dazzy Vance turned the trick all the way back in 1924
4. Matt Kemp missed 40/40 by one home run. In the past teams have batted players (recently Alfonso Soriano and Vladimir Guerrero) chasing this milestone in the leadoff slot to give them more at-bats, but the Dodgers continued to hit Kemp third. Perhaps he would have gotten it with a couple more trips to the dish? We'll never know...
5. 21 year-old Chicago Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro led the National League in hits with 207, becoming the youngest player to lead the NL in that category
6. Jayson Werth did not have a good debut for Washington, but narrowly missed his third career 20/20 season by finishing with 20 dingers and 19 thefts
7. Recognize these underachieving (compared to their productive track records) third basemen?
Player A: 102 G 447 PA 389 AB 60 R 99 H 23 2B 1 3B 14 HR 61 RBI 52 BB 97 K .254/.345/.427 166 TB 114 OPS+
Player B: 99 G 428 PA 373 AB 103 H 21 2B 0 3B 16 HR 62 RBI 47 BB 80 K .276/.362/.461 172 TB 116 OPS+
Player A is David Wright, and Player B is Alex Rodriguez. They made a combined $46 million this season from player salaries alone
8. Vernon Wells had an awful season for the Angels, but still mashed 25 home runs in just 131 games
9. Every division was won by at least six games, hence the dramatic Wild Card chases
10. Adam Dunn had more strikeouts (177) than batting average points (159)
11. So close but so far; Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols, and Jhonny Peralta just missed the magical .300 mark and finished at .299. Pujols and Evan Longoria just missed 100 RBI, and Ben Zobrist just missed 100 runs
12. The Machine's decade long streak of .300-30-100 seasons came to an end, as did A-Rod's 13 consecutive 30 HR 100 RBI seasons and Ichiro Suzuki's string of ten consecutive 200 hit seasons. Injuries were to blame in the first two cases, and some bad luck plagued Ichiro
13. Shout out to Josh Willingham, who had 29 long balls and 98 RBI for the A's this season. Who knew? Same goes for Michael Morse and his 31 big flies, 95 ribbies and great .303/.360/.550 line
14. Carlos Pena (28) and Torii Hunter (23) hit the same number of homers in both 2010 and 2011
15. 35 year-old Alfonso Soriano can't run or field much anymore, but his bat still has enough pop to launch 26 homers, knock in 88 runs and slug .469 despite missing almost all of May
16. Jacoby Ellsbury, Andre Ethier, Nick Markakis and Shane Victorino were the only full time players to not make an error this season
17. Poor Tim Lincecum and Doug Fister, who sported 2.74 and 2.83 ERAs but managed to wind up with losing records
18. Detroit closer Jose Valverde went a perfect 49 for 49 in save opportunities
19. How many people know Ian Kennedy won more games than Roy Halladay, had as many strikeouts as Jered Weaver and owned an ERA lower than C.C. Sabathia? Not too many
20. Speaking of Halladay and Sabathia, both pulled a Mike Mussina and finished with 19 wins
21. Carlos Lee is like the Ryan Howard of the Astros; he managed to knock in 94 runs for the NL's fourth-worst offense
22. Derrek Lee looked lost in the AL, but a move to Pittsburgh seemed to rejuvenate his bat. He hit .337/.398/.584 in 28 games after the trade
23. Remember when Jason Bay was an annual 35-100-100 guy? He has 18 taters, 104 RBI and 107 runs...over the past two seasons combined. That's what happens when you leave Fenway for a pitcher's park
24. The Red Sox went 45-36 at Fenway and 45-36 on the road even though they have been historically much better at home. They also bookended their season terribly by winning 18 games in April and September combined
25. Toronto was the only team that finished exactly .500
1. Clayton Kershaw won the NL Pitching Triple Crown with 21 wins, 248 strikeouts and a sparkling 2.28 ERA. He also topped the Senior Circuit in WHIP and H/9 with 0.977 and 6.7 marks, respectively. His season was basically just as good as a certain Tigers' ace, but few people seemed to talk about it since he didn't throw a no-hitter, played on a mediocre team and pitched in a pitcher's park
2. Justin Verlander won the NL Pitching Triple Crown with 24 victories, 250 punchouts and a 2.40 ERA. He also led the Junior Circuit in winning percentage (.828), games started (34), ERA+ (170), WHIP (0.92) and H/9 (6.2). He still doesn't deserve the MVP, not when his season isn't any more impressive than what Johan Santana, Jake Peavy, Roger Clemens, and Pedro Martinez have done in the past decade
3. A pitcher won the triple crown in each league for the first time since Walter Johnson and Dazzy Vance turned the trick all the way back in 1924
4. Matt Kemp missed 40/40 by one home run. In the past teams have batted players (recently Alfonso Soriano and Vladimir Guerrero) chasing this milestone in the leadoff slot to give them more at-bats, but the Dodgers continued to hit Kemp third. Perhaps he would have gotten it with a couple more trips to the dish? We'll never know...
5. 21 year-old Chicago Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro led the National League in hits with 207, becoming the youngest player to lead the NL in that category
6. Jayson Werth did not have a good debut for Washington, but narrowly missed his third career 20/20 season by finishing with 20 dingers and 19 thefts
7. Recognize these underachieving (compared to their productive track records) third basemen?
Player A: 102 G 447 PA 389 AB 60 R 99 H 23 2B 1 3B 14 HR 61 RBI 52 BB 97 K .254/.345/.427 166 TB 114 OPS+
Player B: 99 G 428 PA 373 AB 103 H 21 2B 0 3B 16 HR 62 RBI 47 BB 80 K .276/.362/.461 172 TB 116 OPS+
Player A is David Wright, and Player B is Alex Rodriguez. They made a combined $46 million this season from player salaries alone
8. Vernon Wells had an awful season for the Angels, but still mashed 25 home runs in just 131 games
9. Every division was won by at least six games, hence the dramatic Wild Card chases
10. Adam Dunn had more strikeouts (177) than batting average points (159)
11. So close but so far; Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols, and Jhonny Peralta just missed the magical .300 mark and finished at .299. Pujols and Evan Longoria just missed 100 RBI, and Ben Zobrist just missed 100 runs
12. The Machine's decade long streak of .300-30-100 seasons came to an end, as did A-Rod's 13 consecutive 30 HR 100 RBI seasons and Ichiro Suzuki's string of ten consecutive 200 hit seasons. Injuries were to blame in the first two cases, and some bad luck plagued Ichiro
13. Shout out to Josh Willingham, who had 29 long balls and 98 RBI for the A's this season. Who knew? Same goes for Michael Morse and his 31 big flies, 95 ribbies and great .303/.360/.550 line
14. Carlos Pena (28) and Torii Hunter (23) hit the same number of homers in both 2010 and 2011
15. 35 year-old Alfonso Soriano can't run or field much anymore, but his bat still has enough pop to launch 26 homers, knock in 88 runs and slug .469 despite missing almost all of May
16. Jacoby Ellsbury, Andre Ethier, Nick Markakis and Shane Victorino were the only full time players to not make an error this season
17. Poor Tim Lincecum and Doug Fister, who sported 2.74 and 2.83 ERAs but managed to wind up with losing records
18. Detroit closer Jose Valverde went a perfect 49 for 49 in save opportunities
19. How many people know Ian Kennedy won more games than Roy Halladay, had as many strikeouts as Jered Weaver and owned an ERA lower than C.C. Sabathia? Not too many
20. Speaking of Halladay and Sabathia, both pulled a Mike Mussina and finished with 19 wins
21. Carlos Lee is like the Ryan Howard of the Astros; he managed to knock in 94 runs for the NL's fourth-worst offense
22. Derrek Lee looked lost in the AL, but a move to Pittsburgh seemed to rejuvenate his bat. He hit .337/.398/.584 in 28 games after the trade
23. Remember when Jason Bay was an annual 35-100-100 guy? He has 18 taters, 104 RBI and 107 runs...over the past two seasons combined. That's what happens when you leave Fenway for a pitcher's park
24. The Red Sox went 45-36 at Fenway and 45-36 on the road even though they have been historically much better at home. They also bookended their season terribly by winning 18 games in April and September combined
25. Toronto was the only team that finished exactly .500
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