First Quarter Awards

With a little over a quarter of the 2006 MLB Season underway, I have come up with my award winners for Q1.

AL MVP: Jim Thome (CWS) - He has been enfuego over the first 40+ games and making Kenny Williams look like a genius for dealing Aaron Rowand. He is hitting .303 with 18 Homers (second in all of baseball and first in the AL) and has 43 RBI (also second in baseball and first in the AL). His OPS is also second in baseball at an amazing 1.129.

NL MVP: Albert Pujols (StL) - No contest. He is the best player in baseball and I hope that he breaks Barry Bonds' single season homer mark because there is no question that Albert is clean. Besides that fact, he is leading all of baseball in Homers (23) RBI (57) OPS (1.258) Runs (48) is hitting a salty .318 and is playing Gold Glove caliber defense. When it is all over, this guy could go down as the greatest player in the history of baseball he is that damn good.

AL Cy Young: Roy Halladay (Tor) - 6th in the league in ERA (2.77) third in WHIP (1.03) and leads the league with 2 complete games (almost had another last night) and is in the top ten in innings pitched. This guy will give his team a quality start every time out and save the bullpen. Oh and he also has a 6-1 record.

NL Cy Young: Brandon Webb (Ari) - The guy is 7-0 and a major reason that Arizona is above .500 and in first place in the NL Best. He is also third in the league in ERA (2.44) and in the top ten in WHIP (1.10). He also only has 8 walks in 73.2 innings (which leads the NL).

AL Rookie of the Quarter: Justin Verlander (Det) - Hard to argue with a 6-3 record and an ERA of 2.70 which is 5th best in the AL. Opponents are only hitting .230 against the youngster and he has a WHIP of 1.10. He is one of the many reasons that Detroit is leading the AL Central.

NL Rookie of the Quarter: Hanley Ramirez (Fla) - The guy Boston gave up for Beckett and Lowell is hitting .34o (second in the NL) and has 16 stolen bases (second in the NL) and 41 runs scored (second in the NL).

Best Offseason acquisition: Tie between Jim Thome and Josh Beckett/Mike Lowell - I have already described why Thome is in this category, but I have to acknowledge the Florida/Boston deal because Mike Lowell is hitting .331 with 6 homers, 27 RBI, and a league best 21 doubles. He is also a big reason that Boston has the best fielding percentage in all of baseball. Josh Beckett has also been very good with a 6-1 record in 10 starts.

Most surprising Team: Detroit Tigers - Nobody picked them to lead the AL Central at ANY point in the season. But they are doing it and they look like legitimate playoff contenders.

AL Manager of the Quarter: Jim Leyland (Det) - See Most surprising Team.

NL Manager of the Quarter: Grady Little (LAD) - You may be surprised to see that Tony LaRussa or Jerry Narron or even Willy Randolph isn't here, but here's why - Randolph has so much talent on that team if they aren't in first they should be ashamed. Same with LaRussa. Narron has done a good job with Cincy but Little has done just as good a job with LA and has had many more key injuries. Nomar Garciaparra (a key offseason acquisition) has only played in 28 of the team's first 46 games and has been phenomenal. Imagine how many more games they would have won if they had Nomar healthy all year and Gagne healthy in the back end of that bullpen. That is why Little is my choice for NL Manager of the Quarter.

Interleague Play is Upon Us

I was listening to one of my favorite programs on XM Radio channel 175 (shameless plug lol) called "The Show" with Kevin Kennedy and Rob Dibble and they were discussing interleague play and how they would abandon the idea. That got me thinking about how I feel on the subject of interleague games in baseball...

I am one of the guys who like having it, but wouldn't miss it. I enjoy seeing teams like the Yankees and Red Sox come into Miller Park and take on the Brewers. I enjoy seeing Boston vs. Atlanta or New York vs. New York. I even enjoy watching Tampa Bay vs. Florida because I think that it could forge a rivalry where there really isn't one. Neither Florida nor Tampa Bay really have a team who they are rivals. What about matchups like Toronto and Colorado or Seattle and San Diego? Why not? Players from Toronto wanna have the opportunity to play in Coors. Fans from Seattle don't get to see players like Brian Giles or Jake Peavy. I like the aspect of seeing players and teams that you don't usually get to see. Another matchup that is under scrutiny is St. Louis vs. Kansas City. Well, for this year and the past couple of years it has been awfully lopsided, but 20 years ago this would have been a matchup all of America was paying attention to. Cincinnati vs. Cleveland is a big matchup in the Midwest, and this year fans are oober excited about Cincy taking on Detroit. Cincinnati vs. Detroit! At the beginning of the year nobody would have thought that Detroit was leading their division and Cincinnati was close to the top of the NL Central at the beginning of interleague play.

Rob and Kevin were mentioning how they would like to see interleague play done away with so the division teams could play more games against each other, which in a way I agree with, but at the same time after 19 Yankees/Red Sox games I am a little tired of the rivalry. Especially since they end up facing each other in the playoffs many years so it could end up at 26 games against the same team in a year. It gets a little stale in this columnist's opinion.

One thing that I think would be great about eliminating interleague play would be how teams could play against the teams who are not in their division but in the same league more. As a Brewer fan, I want to see other teams I enjoy watching play against Milwaukee. I wanna see Colorado and Atlanta come into Miller Park or Milwaukee visit Coors more. Being from Montana, I don't have the opportunity to see a whole lot of games, and the ones that I can see are either Colorado or Seattle. I really want to be able to see my Milwaukee Brewers play more often. If there were no interleague play, it could open up the schedule space for Milwaukee and Colorado schedule more games against each other.

There are other matchups that could be rejuvenate by interleague play being abolished. Does anyone remember how the Dodgers and Braves used to be a major rivalry in Major League Baseball? Before the divisions were split and the Wild Card was introduced the Braves and Dodgers were perennial contenders for the National League West.

Another argument for the abandonment of interleague play is how the familiarity between the teams in the World Series is affected. Some individuals are worried that the luster of the World Series could be affected by the AL vs. NL being watered down a little. My question is: How many of the teams who have met in the World Series played against each other during interleague play that season? If that has happened often then I think the interleague situation needs to be dealt with. I think that the World Series is something in sports that needs not be messed with and if the teams are playing against each other before they reach the Series, then baseball needs to address that situation.

All in all, I am excited to see interleague play again because the Minnesota Twins are visiting Miller Park and I get to see how the Brewers fare against the phenom Francisco Liriano. I like seeing that rivalry from the AL be renewed. Interleague play has been good for Major League Baseball. It has brought in more fans and I think it has rejuvenated the players. It will never go away and if it did, meh there are good and bad things about it. But there are good and bad things about everything in baseball...

Rankings Part 1

After a little over a month of the season I have created what I think is a more innovative ranking system. Instead of ranking the teams in order, I will rank the divisions in order with select teams being singled out for one reason or another.

Best division in baseball: NL Central
If the Cincinnati Reds can be in first place and 4 of the 6 teams are over .500 (with the Cubs being 4 over .500 before their six game skid) and the defending NL Champions only 1.5 games out this is definately the toughest division in baseball right now. Everyone is playing well, even Pittsburgh who are losing tough games against division opponents.

Worst division in baseball: NL East
You probably thought I would say the NL West, but here's the deal: the NL East would only have 1 team over .500 if Philadelphia hadn't faced Florida (the worst team in the league) and San Francisco (the worst team in the NL West). Atlanta has pitching troubles, Washington and Florida just have troubles, and the Mets, as good as they have been may have to go without Billy Wagner with his finger troubles.

Most Suprising team thusfar: Cincinnati Reds/Detroit Tigers/Colorado Rockies
In my season predictions column, I had the Reds and Rockies at the bottom of the division and the Tigers only ahead of Kansas City. But Detroit has been very hot thusfar and only the best team in baseball the Chicago White Sox are ahead of Detroit in the standings. Colorado is winning outside of Coors, and is pitching very well, so they could be in the race down the stretch with the division being so tight. Cincy has been hitting the cover off the ball and pitching just well enough to win games. I don't think Cincy will keep this up for the duration of the season, but they have been a great suprise thusfar.

Most Disappointing team thusfar: Minnesota Twins/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Minnesota made a lot of moves in the offseason only to be next to last in the division, and the Angels were supposed to compete with Oakland for the division crown this year. Anaheim needs to get Vlad Guerrero some protection in the lineup and get Bartolo Colon healthy and Jeff Weaver needs to get his head on straight so they can stay in the division race.

Teams on the rise: Philadelphia Phillies/San Diego Padres
Both have won their last 8 games and even though they have only beaten teams who's record are below .500 in that stretch, hey they are winning and there really isn't anyone else who fits this category

Teams on the decline: Chicago Cubs/San Francisco Giants
Is Barry that big of a distraction? Maybe. But I think the problem is their starting rotation. Matt Morris has been very disappointing thusfar and Noah Lowry has been on the DL. I thought Chicago would be next to last in the division earlier this year, but without Prior and Wood (very very overrated but that is for another column) they were over .500 until they ran into the Diamondbacks and Padres.