Calling it Now

With summer winding down and the public’s interest in baseball vanishing faster than this Hunter Pence’s home run ball leaving the yard, its time to announce the year’s award winners.

American League Most Valuable Player: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers

This may go down as the easiest MVP choice in the history of baseball; and if it’s not someone’s voting privileges need to be revoked.

                                                  

Cabrera is hitting .357 this season. The next closest person to him in the major leagues, Yadier Molina, trails him by 24 points.

The Tiger’s slugger has 130 runs batted in this year and we aren’t even in September yet. The next closest player is 12 RBI behind him.

Cabrera is also second in the majors in runs scored and leads the American league in hits.

Literally if you go to MLB.com’s “American Leaders” page, Cabrera is first in everything offense except for home runs; where he is just three back of Chris Davis.

Also, as if he needed to further his own argument, Cabrera’s been battling a lower abdomen strain for a month. And he could be the first person ever to win back to back triple crowns.

Even if he doesn’t, AL MVP is a lock for sure.

National League MVP: Allen Craig, Saint Louis Cardinals

While picking Cabrera to win MVP again is very easy, the national league equivalent has been much harder to determine.

The Atlanta Braves have the best record in baseball, yet they been doing it without one guy carrying the offensive load; well, that and great pitching.

Paul Goldschmidt has a good batting average (.300), is second in the NL in home runs (31),leads the NL in RBI’s (104), has the second best OPS in the national league (.952), and is confidently the best player on the Diamondbacks.

Yet the D-backs are going to miss the playoffs. And it goes against every fiber in my being to vote for an MVP guy knowing that his team isn’t going to be playing October baseball.

So we’re left with a guy who is second in the NL in RBI’s (96), sixth in the league in batting average, (.316), is forth in the NL in hits (153), and is hitting .452 with runners in scoring position.

That’s not a misprint; Allen Craig has a .452 average with runners in scoring positing.

Ladies and Gentlemen your 2013 NL MVP, Allen Craig!

NL CY Young: Clayton Kershaw, LA Dodgers

This one is also an easy choice. Kershaw has the lowest ERA in the majors at 1.72, leads the major leagues in strikeouts with 197, and opponents are hitting .186 against him.

While 13 wins doesn’t help Kershaw factor in how atrocious the Dodgers were in the beginning of the year and the fact that pitchers wins don’t seem to matter anymore and Kershaw is the runaway choice.

AL CY Young: Max Scherzer, Detroit Tigers

This race is pretty much between two players: Yu Darvish and Max Scherzer. Here are their splits.

Darvish: 12-5, 2.68 ERA, 25 starts, 116 hits allowed, 20 homers allowed, 225 strikeouts, opponents bat .191 against him.

Scherzer: 19-1, 2.73 ERA, 26 starts, 120 hits allowed, 14 homers allowed, 196 strikeouts, opponents bat .190 against him.

The formula for picking Scherzer is simple. Similar ERA to Darvish + six fewer homers allowed + better batting average against + he doesn’t loose= AL CY Young.

Though if Darvish wins the award, that shouldn’t be an issue.

AL Manager of the Year: John Farrell, Boston Red Sox

Honorable mentions to Bob Melvin (name 10 players on the Oakland Athletics without the internet’s help), Joe Girardi (Injury devastated Yankees are in the race still) and Terry Francona (Cleveland stunk last year now they’re in the race).

Yet none of the honorable mentions had to deal with the disaster that was the Red Sox clubhouse last year. The chicken and beer boys have been replaced by the effort and beard boys. Farrell gets credit for the Sox having the best record in the AL and altering the clubhouse for the better.

NL Manager of the Year: Clint Hurdle, Pittsburgh Pirates

While Mike Matheny and Fredi Gonzalez are good managers of good teams, they were expected to be division leaders.

The only other manager who could dethrone Hurdle is Don Mattingly of the Dodgers. Considering the team was left for dead in 2013 BP, before Puig, Mattingly has greatly helped in having LA go 45-10 in 55 games.

Still, the NL West is the worst division in baseball and the stupidly high number that is the Dodgers payroll hinder Mattingly’s argument a bit.

Meanwhile Hurdle team has one fewer win than the Dodgers in the toughest division in baseball. 

Combine that with the notion that no Pirate offensive player is having a fantastic season and you get a team that relies heavily on pitching and management to win.

Hurdle has been one of the best this season in that department.

No Really, USA Today Covered This Story.

Earlier this week an online company called 800Razors.com offered one million dollars for Brian Wilson of the Los Angeles Dodgers to vanquish the Bigfoot of sports beards.

800Razors.com President Philip Masiello told RadarOnline.com “His (Wilson’s) management feels we need to match his present salary of $1 million at a minimum, the discussions commenced Friday and are continuing.”

Apparently James Harden was not available for this offer, seeing as how Wilson is being paid the arbitration figure this year (that’s one million dollars for one year for those who don’t speak baseball finances) and hasn’t been the impact closer that warranted his own facial hair getting a twitter account.

                               

Still, Wilson has been much better with the hill of hair on his face.

Wilson’s beard began to mount on a few occasions during the 2010 season. In 70 games that year Wilson recorded a career high 48 saves, had a career low 1.81 earned run average, and finished seventh in the CY Young voting.

Oh, and the Giants won their first World Series title since 1954.

Flash forward two years and two injury plagued seasons and Wilson is now finishing games for the Dodgers. He picked up his first action as a Dodger against the Marlins yesterday by striking out two of three batters.

While Wilson could have a positive impact for LA at a low price, the question can be asked if Wilson’s facial hair could make a difference in someone else’s life.

One school of thought is that that Wilson should shave for the betterment of others. Perhaps Wilson could tell 800Razors.com to up their offer to three million dollars and that the money gets donated to the charity of his choice.

Even though he’s making the arbitration figure this year Brian Wilson doesn’t need the gift million dollars. He made 4,440,000 dollars in 2010, 6.5 million in 2011, and 8.5 million last season.

That move would be fantastic public relations on the Dodgers part and could help someone far less fortunate than Wilson and his luscious locks of facial hair. No pressure or anything here.

On the other side of the fence is all of the stigma that Wilson’s beard holds a huge portion of his identity as a player. Wilson shaving off the beard would be like Chris Andersen getting rid of all his tattoos, Prince Fielder getting rid of his fat, or Tim Tebow losing his ability to miss receivers by a country mile.

Though all beard fans don’t have to worry about the big bad razors anymore, the Dodger pitcher will have no part of it.

Wilson’s reps told Yahoo sports.com earlier today that the former all-star will not so much as trim his famous trademark. Apparently Wilson’s beard is “going with him to the grave.”

While one shudders to think of Wilson’s wake with a silky white beard that goes down past his sternum, there is something positive to be said about a unique characteristic defining an athlete.

For Wilson it is his beard, and it appears it’s here to stay.

"Perposterous" Preseason Predictions

As training camp picks up the impending arrival of NFL football becomes like a pickup truck running over a small squirrel. 

So, in the spirit of squashing all other sports stories out in the rest of the sporting world, the time has come to make some “preposterous” predictions for the upcoming season.

“Preposterous” prediction number one: The Baltimore Ravens will miss the playoffs.

When it comes to the postseason Joe Flacco is no fluke. Last season’s great line throughout the playoffs (73-126, 58 percent completion percentage, 1,140 yards, 11 touchdowns, Zero interceptions) speaks for itself.

Flacco is the only quarterback to win a postseason game each of his first five seasons in the NFL. He has 19 postseason touchdowns to eleven interceptions. And Baltimore has won nine of the 13 playoff games Flacco has started; so the Ravens have won 69 percent of games Flacco has started in come playoff time.

Yet this season will undoubtedly be the most challenging for football’s newest 100 million dollar man.

This is because his team’s spiritual leader, (Ray Lewis) their impact pass rusher of last postseason (Paul Krueger), and Flacco’s top two targets (Anquan Boldin and Dennis Pitta) are gone.

Terrell Suggs had just two sacks all of last season. James Ihedigbo, the former Patriots safety who couldn’t defend a chair in pass coverage, is listed as their starting strong safety.

Combine all of this with the overall strength of the AFC, the Cincinnati Bengals not getting worse, and that Baltimore’s offensive coordinators for some reason refuse to give Ray Rice more than 20 carries on a consistent basis for some irrational reason; and you have a recipe for Baltimore to miss the playoffs.

“Preposterous” prediction number two: AJ Green will have a better statistical year than Andre Johnson.

Let’s stack up the numbers of two NFL receivers in a vacuum for a moment.

Receiver A’s numbers: 97 receptions, 1,350 receiving yards, Eleven touchdown catches, 13.9 yards per reception, 84.4 yards per game.

Receiver B’s numbers: 63 catches, 688 yards,  two touchdown catches, 10.9 yards per reception, 52.9 yards per game.

Based off of the vacuum principle, receiver B doesn’t belong in the same stratosphere as receiver A. Yet take these numbers out of the vacuum and you realize that receiver B is actually Andre Johnson’s circa 2005; back when he was 24 (and had David Carr throwing him the ball.)

Green at 24 put up better numbers than Johnson at 24. And Green, who is already a beast, is just entering his prime this year.

But prime isn’t the only reason Green should have a better statistical year, for competition factors in as well.

Johnson will have to face the Seahawks and 49ers defenses on consecutive weeks; as well as an improved Arizona Cardinals defense with a talented corner in Patrick Peterson. Not to mention the Denver Broncos later in the year with the leader of the NFL’s ‘never count him out due to age’ team in Champ Bailey.

The toughest challenge Green will have to face is in week one against the vaunted Bears pass defense.

After that game Green will get to torch the Packers in week three, the Patriots in week five, the Bills in week six, the Lions in week seven, the Jets in week eight, San Diego in week 13 and the Colts in week 14.

Expect both of these receivers to play great this year. It’s just things are lining up for Green to have a better year in 2013 than Johnson does.