Monday, November 10, 2008

Great Moments in BBWAA Voting

I and many others spent a lot of time slagging on the BBWAA last winter for what I felt was their shortsighted and petty decision to not include Rob Neyer and Keith Law. The more you see from those guys, however, the more you think that maybe Rob and Keith don't want any part of such an idiotic group.

Example: note the disclaimer next to fourth place finisher in the NL Rookie of the year voting:


* [Edinson] Volquez received votes despite being ineligible as a rookie.

And it wasn't just one vote, it was three. For a guy who made his Major League debut in 2005.

Great votin' there, fellas.

(thanks to reader Jay Gargiulo for the heads up)

10 comments:

Jeff J. Snider said...

James Loney got a vote, too.

Grant said...

Perhaps I'm misremembering, but I believe Law mentioned that he's not really interested. In fact he regularly insults the BBWA (which he calls the BBRA) in his espn.com chats

Craig Calcaterra said...

You're right, Grant. And I'm pretty sure Rob feels the same way. I just like symmetry when it comes to dumb moves by BBWAA members, thus the call-back to the Neyer-Law thing.

Anonymous said...

jeff j. snider: The Loney "vote" was an error by MLB.com. They took the table from last year, where Loney got one third place vote, and replaced the top 6 guys with the real NL votes, and mistakingly left Loney on it. He did not receive any vote this year.

Anonymous said...

The NL MVP vote could be the real barn-burner this year. It's not hard imagining a Howard win and the articles that will follow. Call it morbid curiosity but I'm looking forward to it.- Max

Matt Glenn said...

N.L. MVP Vote will likely look like this:
1. Ryan Howard
2. C.C. Sabathia
3. Derek Jeter
4. Captain Kirk
5. Jerry Rice

Craig Calcaterra said...

Kirk is a defensible choice.

Grant said...

I think this should have been McCoy's year. Yeah, his counting stats weren't great, but look at those rates!

Kirk wins every year, and he really had a down year. The advanced metrics don't like him at all. If you're picking an Enterprise team member go with Lenny this year.

Daniel said...

David Eckstein over Jerry Rice, IMO. Grittier.

Anonymous said...

Hey, he was new to the National League. It was his first year after 3 with Texas.

If it works for the guys coming over from Japan, makes perfect sense he was eligible in the National League in his first year there.

After all, it is the "National League" rookie of the year, not the "MLB" rookie of the year.

How dare you point out the inconsistencies in the voting of the BBWAA? They say its right, so it must be.

Next thing you'll be telling me the Electoral College is outdated and archaic!