ESPN Baseball Assface of the Week

and pls don't do the "if you don't like it, don't watch" thing.

But I do know that Joe Morgan is an Assface.

Nothing on this earth is as bad as Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin for Caps games.

I think the comedic lowpoint of local hockey broadcasting was seeing Rob Ramage (now jailed on dwi charges I believe) holding a mike up to some Russian broadcasters and giving a Homer-esque comment of "they talk funny talk! hee hee!"

Tom Mees, RIP

OK, he wasn't as bad as usual, though I had the sound off for half the game.

And I dunno what happened to Dave O'Brien - I used to think he was one of EPSN's top dogs, but this year (doing ESPN games, or Mets games on WWOR), he's been unlistenable. I think the Mets are bringing him down.

Then Good Ol' Jeff B picks Rolen because "he was doin' it from Day One, when Edmonds and Pujols started slow" and "YOU'LL NEVER SEE HIM DO A PIROUETTE AT THE PLATE AFTER A HOME RUN" (slap at Pujols as well as Bonds?). There were other morsels like "any dad could show his kid how Scott Rolen plays" ... ie, the White Way.

Willie McGee is pretty black and he was probably the humblest professional athlete I've ever seen.

Pujols, for what it's worth, never seems to care at all about his own stats (well, until contract time). When he became the first player to hit 30 homers in his first 4 season the other day, he was totally unphased.

In conclusion, Rolen is a stud. Obviously what he has working against him for the mvp is he bats with Pujols in front of him and Jedmonds behind him.

But then he'd lose the "he is their entire offense!!!! omg wtf!!!" claim. (ALthough his rbi total would be pretty obscene.) But then Rolen whips him in the field (which is always neglected in the mvp vote). Also the Cardinals have that MOST WINS IN BASEBALL thing.

I realize that "styling" is done by some Caucasian players. Let's just say Brantley is guilty of dumb analysis. (And there are rational arguments one can make for Rolen... at least in any year where a guy didn't have a .600ish OBP.)

this man should not even be a candidate.

And a season's a fine sample size. I think Sheff and A-Rod have "won more games for the Yankees" than any other players and are both legit MVP candidates. If they're tied in value (hey, Rod leads Sheff in VORP 46.5-46.0 today), the tiebreaker is that 3B is a more crucial position and a future HOF SS moved there for the good of all!

And neither of them have been as good as Guillen, Vlad, Tejada, and arguably Hafner or Manny. (Maybe Guillen hasn't "won more games" for Detroit than the Yankee stars have, but that's *chorus* penalizing a guy for his teammates.)

And since the Cards and Yanks will likely win their divisions by 10-15 games, there's the argument that no one star of theirs is indispensable; hence none are MVPs. But that's a bullshit argument. It'd help Bonds for the Giants to gain a playoff berth on the final weekend, of course.

Who'd rather see me & Dahlem on cable than those yutzes in Bristol?

sheffield's performance in the clutch has won us games, a-rod's has cost us. like it or not, fair or not, it matters.

If Sheff has won more games, it's probably more luck than skill, and bad luck for A-Rod to a large extent, but it's what they did in those situations. Billy Beane shouldn't use it to determine what player will be better in the future, but for an MVP award it's a good criteria.

The BBWAA don't hardly look at RISP, I bet, but largely RBI for MVP and wins for Cys. (Slight deviation for Bonds recently, but that's when the other stats are elephantine.)

indeed, why not? i do; that's part of what i meant by "performance in the clutch".

gear post #1: my point exactly
gear post #2: debating these awards is part of being a baseball fan! and it's a lot more interesting than the freaking oscars!!

doc, if you really wanna play by the rules, "styling", as you call it, is one of the very few definite criteria mvp voters are to take into consideration. (it's almost impossible to find the criteria but i'm pretty sure "conduct and character" are on there)

"I'm just always under the impression that the guy with the most wins is the best pitcher.... People at ESPN are into numbers and they say, 'Well, Santana's ERA is better and Schilling had more run support.' But what's the big thing for a pitcher? Win 20 games, right? You never hear, 'I want to win the ERA title.' They want to win."
--John Kruk, ESPN baseball analyst, on Cy Young winner Johan Santana (St. Paul Pioneer Press)

Boggs was fun to play against. I wish him the best in his candidacy for the Hall of Fame. - this is the kind of insight only a former player can provide.

However, I have direcTV and get a whole buncha regional sports nets FREE as a come-on this weekend! Hope Dodgers-Pads-A's, at least...

Yeah, the Astros are still a longshot, but this series definetly provided some drama. If nothing else, it made clear that even if the Cardinals hang on and win the division, they're toast in the first round.

It's really funny how even Karl freakin' Ravech feels comfortable scoffing at Steve Phillips' "analysis" these days (last week: Chisox make playoffs; yesterday: Dodger veterans "step up" and win them the wild card).

(The Astros are providing a little tease, but the odds are still long. Plus Jeff Brantley is predicting Clemens pitches another meaningful game later this week, so there's the kiss of death.)

even if the Cardinals hang on and win the division, they're toast in the first round

Certainly possible, but again, there's no historical correlation between finishing badly and postseason results.

Phillips: *finshing Tigers ramble* blah blah Leyland blah...

Ravech: John, anything to add to that?

Kruk: *dumbfounded/irritated* Nope.

*laughter from everyone, with Phillips looking a little embarrassed and somewhat pissed*

Morneau's stats with RISP this year: .323/.402/.573; .310/.429/.517 with RISP/2 out. Also hitting a reasonably-clutch .299/.343/.540 close/late. Not as sick as Jeter's, but "not clutch" my ass.

Then again, Mauer's hitting .408/.547/.653 with RISP/2 out and is Jeter's superior in almost every conceivable statistic (projected to the same # of ABs or otherwise) except steals and runs scored. (Another overlooked fact: Mauer's 3rd in the AL in intentional walks, behind Ortiz and Guerrero.)

Anyway, I digress from my original point, which is that Kruk and Brantley are idiots and also really unpleasant to look at.

They're all idiots cept Tim K. And the BBTN Mets' MVP was declared to be Reyes.

saw some of Mets-Cards at lunch -- who was color guy w/ high-pitched voice?

Was it Kruk?

Not unless he had MTF surgery

I read that it was Kruk on color with a female play-by-play person.

I heard it was the kid from Dwight Gooden's car. He's doing Leno tonight too.

This week's award goes to the knucklehead(s) who decided to have the career stats run from latest (at the top) to earliest (at the bottom).

the new round of baseball tonight guys are soooooooo bad -- dave winfield is in contention for top 5 worst espn in-studio analysts in any sport

otm

on the plus side, not wanting to give that crap attention anymore frees up a few more minutes in the day

JP Rich makes me change the channel real fast.

yeah, JP is like if one of the dudes from 'jersey shore' aged 30 years overnight and then was hired by ESPN

who is this shithead doing color on Phils-Braves? First guess was EriC Byrnes -- is it Chris Singleton?

"Carlos Ruiz is a winning player"

30 seconds of listening to Curt Schilling = may the Red Sox lose forever

"Is there anything more obnoxious than a bachelorette party at the ballpark?" -- ESPN announcer Matt Vasgersian during the Cards-Cubs game.

— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) July 20, 2018

a bachelor party i suppose

vasgergian is Bad
a-rod is okay but gets repetitive and i don't really like his voice
mendoza is fine but can't get a word in when a-rod keeps going on about how larry rothschild needs to go out there and calm him down

Mendoza spoke at the Saberseminar this weekend, and she said her first year the producer went over her performance with her exhaustively on Monday or Tuesday. I wonder if A-Rod got the same treatment?

i'd like to give them something of a pass as the pace of that game was excrutiating. arod needs to be less of a motormouth and vasgergian needs to actually take the reins of the conversation sometimes.

vasgersian has a nice voice. I love A rod and mendoza, they actually like baseball which is a plus

i'm sure a-rod gets the same treatment -- everything i've seen talks about how eager to learn he is. and he is pretty good considering he's never done it before

vasgergian does have a nice voice. but looool at 'don't look now, but the yankees are bringing the tying run to the plate' in the top of the ninth when the yanks were *up* three. also i don't really trust dudes who go for the meticulous unshaven look