MLB's Cy Young Award Winners Announced

As if there was ever a doubt about who would win the National League Cy Young Award, let the arguments rest. Clayton Kershaw of the LA Dodgers, is this years winner, his 3rd Cy Young Award. He had a 21-3 record with a 1.77 Era while striking out 239 batters in just 198 1/3 innings. Kershaw spent most of April on the DL. Kershaw was a unanimous choice for the Award.

The voting was quite close in the American League. Corey Kluber, of the Indians, won the award over Felix Hernandez, of the Mariners. Kluber had a very good year for the Tribe, going 18-9 with a 2.44 ERA. He struck out 269 batters in 235 2/3 innings while walking just 51 for a better than 5 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio.

MLB Players Choose Their Best

The players of major league baseball have chosen their top players in several categories. The voting was done on the 16th of September, according to the MLB Players Union.

Clayton Kershaw, of the Dodgers, was picked in 3 categories.
  Player of the Year
  Marvin Miller Man of the Year
  NL Outstanding Pitcher
Giancarlo Stanton, Miami, was chosen as the NL Outstanding Player
Mike Trout, LA Angels, AL Outstanding Player
Seattle's Felix Hernandez was picked as the AL Outstanding Pitcher
Jose Abreu, White Sox, AL Outstanding Rookie
Jacob deGrom, Mets, NL Outstanding Rookie
Miami's Casey Magehee (NL) and Seattle's Chris Young (AL) were chosen as their league's Comeback Players.

World Series Game 1 Least Watched

The NY Times has an article today by Jonathan Mahler and Bill Carter explaining that Major League Baseball is no longer the center of attention in US Television Sports.

Their argument is that only 12.2 million viewers tuned in to Game 1 of the World Series. Sunday Night Football, they say, drew 24 million. They called that game a regular season game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Denver Broncos. What they failed to mention is that the game was between last year's Super Bowl team, with Peyton Manning about to break Brett Favre's career touchdown record, and a team that was one play away from making the Super Bowl last year.

Even the Florida State against Notre Dame matchup drew more viewers they note, again failing to mention that #2 FSU, with the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and all his personal problems, was facing it's toughest challange to an undefeated season and possible back-to-back National Championships, against #5 Notre Dame with it's own TV Network and legion of fans nationwide.

There are reasons why the NFL and college football draw more viewers than baseball in the regular season. Every loss could mean elimination from the playoffs.

NFL football, and this year college football, playoffs are a single elimination format - lose and go home. Baseball playoffs are either best of 5 or best of 7 formats. There is no feeling of win now or wait til next year. In 2011, 25 million viewers tuned in watch the 7th game of the World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers, the first series to go 7 games since 2002 and, in essence, a single elimination game.

You have compound problems with the 2014 World Series. Small markets, no "household names" and literally not the "best" teams playing in the series.

Kansas City is the smallest TV market in major league baseball while the Giants rank 14th of the 32 markets.

Cable TV hypes players all year, from April through September, usually from the big markets. (ie. NY, Boston, LA and Detroit) Think Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, Miguel Cabrerra, Giancarlo Stanton, Big Papi, Derek Jeter. These players are highlighted every day for 6 months. There are no "big names" on either of this years teams.

Then you have the perception that the teams playing are not the "best" team of either league. The Kansas City Royals were the 4th best team in the American League while the San Francisco Giants were the 5th best team in the National League. Throughout the early playoffs, neither team was picked to win a series they were in. The saying that perception is reality holds true in the 2014 World Series.

Lastly, the late starts do effect viewership. An 8 o'clock start on the East Coast costs viewers. Without an East Coast team, games during the week and on Sunday, fans won't stay up that late to watch the whole game. They can always check in on the internet to find out the score. In fact, most adults under the age of 40 do not watch TV and get their news and sports from the 'net.

If all baseball wanted was to improve World Series TV ratings, here is what Major League Baseball should do.

Go back to 2 leagues, American League and National League. Play 146 games during the season to determine the top 4 teams. Have those 4 teams play a 1 game playoff. (#1 v #4 and #2 v #3) The winners to play another 1 game playoff. That gives you 6 single elimination games. The League winners would then meet in a best of 5 game World Series to determine a Champion. With the shorter schedule and a shorter playoff, the season could be over by the middle of October instead in dragging on until the end of October or early November.

Interest would be sky high for every game. I know this won't happen but if Major League Baseball calls I'll fill them in on the details...One can dream!

Sporting News Names Kershaw MLB "Player of the Year"

Sporting News has named Clayton Kershaw of the LA Dodgers their Player of the Year for 2014.

What I like about Sporting News' selection is that their panel is made up of 244 major league players. These players vote on what they see day in and day out. The panel is not given a list to choose from, they choose their own candidate.

This year, Kershaw narrowly beat LA Angels outfielder, Mike Trout by three votes, 76-73. Giancarlo Stanton, of the Miami Marlins, finished a distant third with 32 votes.

Jesse Spector of The Sporting News has an article here with the facts about Kershaw's 2014 season. A season where he missed the month of April due to injury.

Cards Advance to the NLCS with a 3-2 Win Over the Dodgers

The LA Dodgers did all they could to even the NLDS series in St. Louis on Tuesday afternoon. They started arguably the best pitcher in baseball in Clayton Kershaw. They staked Kershaw to a 2 run lead in the 6th while Kershaw was holding the Cards on a 1 hit shutout.

In 2014, while posting a 21-3 record with a 1.77 ERA, Kershaw gave up only 1 home run to a left handed hitter. In this series he gave up 2 home runs in 2 games to lefties. Matt Carpenter connected in the first game and Matt Adams jacked a 3 run blast to right field in game 3.

Kershaw is now 1-5 with a 5.12 ERA in his 11 postseason appearances.

"The season ended and I was a big part of the reason why," Kershaw said. "I can't really put it into words, Just bad deja vu all over again."

Enough about the Dodgers. The Cardinals won this NLDS series 3-1. This wasn't a fluke. The Cards will be in the NLCS for the 4th consecutive year. Their 9th NLCS in 15 years. They beat Kershaw twice while holding the Dodgers to 15 runs in 4 games. 

The Cardinals hit 7 home runs in this series, the most postseason home runs by a team that hit the fewest HRs in their league that year.

Box scores usually do not tell the complete story of the game but this one tells of the clutch hitting in the bottom of the 7th. The Cards had 4 hits all night. Matt Holliday and Jhonny Peralta singled to lead off the 7th for two of those.

Matt Adams hit an 0-1 curve ball into the Cardinals bullpen for the 3 run homer, Kershaw's first 3 run home run allowed since June of 2012, a span of 86 starts.

"I don't think I touched the ground the whole way around the bases," Adams said. "Definitely the highlight of my career. ... I will never, ever forget this."

Timely hitting by the Cards is evident when one sees that the Redbirds outscored the Dodgers 15-4 in the 7th through the 9th innings.

The Cardinals will face the Giants in St. Louis beginning on Saturday the 11th of October after the Giants defeated the Washington Nationals 3 games to 2 in the other NLDS Series.

Mattingly to Start Kershaw in Game 4 of NLDS on Three Days Rest

The LA Dodgers are tied with the St. Louis Cardinals at one game apiece in the NLDS series between the two teams.

Don Mattingly has said before Game 3 that Clayton Kershaw would start game 4 of the series on a short three days rest.

When asked why, Mattingly replied,   "He's our best guy," 

You can't argue with locic that simple But I would have waited to see the outcome of tonight's game before i made that decision. Maybe it's because I'm not the manager that I can be so sure of myself. And, if the Dodgers lose tonight then the decision won't warrant a second guess, but, how does this affect the rotation if the Dodgers need 5 games to put away the Cards?

Mark Saxon has a real good story here 


 

Can Anyone Second Guess Mattingly's Decision to Keep Kershaw in Game 1

For 162 games each manager in the Big Leagues is questioned about a decision that was made. Sometimes those decisions work and sometimes they don't. If the Dodgers should lose this NLDS series to the Cards, Don Mattingly will be second guessed all winter.

It was hot, Kershaw had thrown 80+ pitches and yet Mattingly stayed with him. If it works no one thinks anything of it because Kershaw is a monster pitcher, probably the Cy Young winner in the NL this year and maybe even the Most Valuable Player.

If it doesn't work, as it didn't in Game 1, there will be nay sayers and second guessers galore.

I've linked a sports blog called SweetSpot by ESPN  senior writer David Schoenfield where the situation is explored from all sides. I'm not sure I like his title for the piece but that's just me.

Here is the SweetSpot blog link

Cards Score 8 in the 8th Beat Dodgers 10-9

The St. Louis Cardinals took a page from the Baltimore Oriole playbook and scored 8 runs against Clayton Kershaw and the LA Dodgers to win game 1 of the best of five NLDS in LA.

"I'm sure everybody in baseball was expecting a one-run game," Carpenter said. "We ended up getting one, but we didn't think it would be 10-9."

Read the ESPN story here

Read theYahoo Sports story here

Read the Sporting News story here