The Sommer Frieze

Dustin Pedroia of Boston was named the 2008 A.L. MVP today, becoming the first second baseman to win the A.L. MVP since Nellie Fox of the White Sox did it in 1959.

The 25 year old Pedroia, in just his second full MLB season, hit .326-17-83 and had 20 SB in 21 attempts. OPS+ 122. He led the league in hits, runs scored and doubles in setting the table for the wild-card Red Sox. He got 16 of the 28 first place votes. Runnerup Justin Morneau, the 2006 winner, had seven first place votes. Also getting first place votes were Kevin Youkulis (2, finished 3rd), Joe Mauer (2, finished 4th) and K-Rod (1, finished 6th). I do wonder about the guy who voted for K-Rod. True, he had 62 saves for a new record, but the save is a very overrated stat. Was he truly more valuable than the others? Not only that, the Angels won their division quite handily. K-Rod alone wasn’t worth the 21 game margin of that division. They could have had someone half as good and still won the A.L. West.

For Pedroia, it’s ROY in 2007 to MVP in 2008.

Last year’s MVP, A-Rod, finished 8th. Mike Mussina was 19th.

I didn’t do too badly. I gave my picks in September with two weeks left in the season. I gave them early looking for responses. Out of the top four awards (each league’s MVP/CYA), the person I would have voted for won three of them. I went with Pedroia, Lee and Lincecum. The one I missed on was Pujols. The 4th-place Cards finish scared me off. When I made my pick of Delgado (who finished 9th), the Mets hadn’t collapsed [again] yet.

Word is that Ryan Dempster will be going back to the Cubs on a four year deal. As I wrote last week, I would have stayed away from him if I were the Yanks. So there.

A.J. to get next Yanks’ offer? The Post today reported that the Yanks are on the verge of once again offering megabucks to a free-agent starter. Last week it was C.C., with a supposed six-year $140M offer. Now it looks as if A. J. Burnett may be receiving a five-year $80M offer. $16M/year. Does that number sound familiar? It should. It’s what Andy Pettitte made last year. What’s more, the Post article (King, George A. III) states that baseball decision-makers don’t think that the Yanks will stop there. They think they ALSO will extend an offer to Derek Lowe (even though Pete Abraham predicts Lowe goes to Boston. He picks C.C. and A. J. for the Yanks, Manny and Teix back to their respective Southern California POEs).

According to King’s article, the Yanks remain interested in Pettitte, but aren’t going to want to pay him the $16M of last year. Pettitte’s agent, Randy Hendricks, doesn’t want a pay cut, even though Andy is 36 and was a mediocre 14-14, 4.54 last year—the first season of Andy’s career where he didn’t have a winning record.

So are they preparing an exit route for Pettitte? Are the Yanks thinking of just taking Andy’s $16M and doing a transfer to someone younger, then getting that someone younger (Burnett) for a multi-year deal rather than do the one-year, same-amount deal with Andy?

I said that I thought the Yanks needed two pitchers. So do they get the two pitchers (C. C. and Lowe) and get a third as a replacement? (Burnett for Pettitte)?

They are still expecting Mussina to retire.

So, C.C., Wang, Burnett, Lowe and Joba (note how I’m trying to have strikeout/sinker/strikeout/sinker/strikeout)

or

C.C., Wang, Burnett, Pettitte and Joba? (same concept).

King also reports that with the Peavy to Braves deal dead, that the Padres are trying to work with the Cubs or Dodgers on a Peavy deal.