For many MLB teams, the economic climate is forcing clubs to cut payroll and expenses wherever possible.  Even the GM meetings itself has seen cuts – previous sessions were held in Palm Springs and other resort areas. This year I think it speaks volumes about the financial state of MLB teams that they are meeting at a hotel near O’Hare.

So Hendry will likely be sussing out who will take what off his hands – of course Milton Bradley, but maybe even some other over-salaried, under-performing soon to be former Cubs?  Some rumors are saying Bradley would be accepted by a few teams, but the Cubs would have to pick up as much as 16 of the 21 million remaining on the contract. That is a hefty price tag to be sure. I would bet Hendry would rather trade his headache for someone else’s headache; basically trading a bad contract for another similarly bad contract. At least then he might be able to show some value to his new boss for the lost millions on Bradley. Only problem is Bradley does have some legitmate upside in being capable of batting .300 with some HRs and plenty of on-base opportunities.

Two guys with bad contracts that have been mentioned are Aaron Rowand and Pat Burrell. I don’t think either have the offensive upside of Bradley although they might be more tolerable in the clubhouse and less of a team distraction.  Rowand brings some glove and a lot of heart (he’ll literally run through a wall for you), but Burrell brings nothing but a stick, no glove at all. For a team like the Cubs with such defensive challanges, I’m hoping Hendry realizes his next outfielder requirement should be ‘no glove, no love’.  (had to say it!)

Any way you shake it, this franchise will suffer in 2010 due to the unfortunate signing of Milton Bradley. If he’s on the team, distraction and unpleasantness. If they find a taker, will either bring a one dimensional player in return or empty payroll dollars flying out the door. I fail to see a winning conclusion to this situation – at least at this point.  We’ll see if Trader Jim can find some magic left in his bag of tricks.

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THE 2009 FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS have been officially announced after one of the closest races in the history of the award centered around the keystone sack. Second basemen Aaron Hill, Dustin Pedroia and Chase Utley finished with 76, 76 and 73 points respectively, forcing a tie-breaking procedure that awarded Hill his second Fielding Bible Award.

One important distinction that differentiates THE FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS from most other baseball awards, such as the Gold Gloves, is that there is only one winner at each position, instead of separate winners for each league. This distinction came into play this year as Jack Wilson, who split his time between Pittsburgh in the National League and Seattle in the American League, won the Fielding Bible Award at shortstop.

Joining Hill as repeat winners are Albert Pujols (four wins in the four years of the award), Carl Crawford (his third), Yadier Molina (his third), Ichiro Suzuki (two) and Franklin Gutierrez (his second, this one for center field after claiming last year’s right field award). First-time winners are Mark Buehrle, Jack Wilson and Ryan Zimmerman.

A panel of ten analysts, listed below—including Peter Gammons, Bill James, Joe Posnanski, and me—examined the 2009 seasons of every defensive player in Major League Baseball and then used the same voting technique as the Major League Baseball MVP voting. First place votes received 10 points, second place 9 points, third place 8 points, etc. A perfect score was 100.

Here are the results of THE 2009 FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS. A complete record of the voting can be found in The Bill James Handbook 2010.

FIRST BASE—ALBERT PUJOLS, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS (95 POINTS)
Four Fielding Bible Awards in four years. What’s left to say?

SECOND BASE—AARON HILL, TORONTO BLUE JAYS (76)
Hill wins the tie-breaker on the strength of four first-place votes, as opposed to only one for runner-up Dustin Pedroia.

THIRD BASE—RYAN ZIMMERMAN, WASHINGTON NATIONALS (84)
Third base is a strong, deep defensive position in baseball right now, but Zimmerman has set himself apart by becoming the leader in Defensive Runs Saved over the last three years.

SHORTSTOP—JACK WILSON, PITTSBURGH PIRATES/SEATTLE MARINERS (86) Even though he split time between leagues, Wilson was the best shorstop in baseball this year, leading all shorstops in Runs Saved by a wide margin (27 compared to Brendan Ryan’s 19).

LEFT FIELD—CARL CRAWFORD, TAMPA BAY RAYS (99)
No player has ever won with a perfect record (10 first-place votes from 10 panelists), but Crawford came as close as possible, garnering nine out of ten possible first-place votes. His 99 total points is an all-time record.

CENTER FIELD—FRANKLIN GUTIERREZ, SEATTLE MARINERS (97)
Winner of the 2008 Fielding Bible Award for right field, Gutierrez moved over to center field in 2009. His 31 Runs Saved were tied with Chone Figgins for the most in baseball.

RIGHT FIELD—ICHIRO SUZUKI, SEATTLE MARINERS (93)
Hunter Pence gave Ichiro a run for his money, but Ichiro finished with 93 points to Pence’s 84. This is Ichiro’s second Fielding Bible Award.

CATCHER—YADIER MOLINA, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS (96)
Everyone knows about Molina’s incredible throwing arm (well, maybe not the eight guys he picked off this year), but Molina was also the third-best bad-pitch-blocking catcher in baseball behind Carlos Ruiz and Jason Varitek.

PITCHER—MARK BUEHRLE, CHICAGO WHITE SOX (86)
Buerhle has defensive chops, but his ability to hold runners is legendary. In the last four years he’s allowed a total of 15 stolen bases, picked off 14 baserunners, and thrown over to first—only to have the runner break for second and be thrown out—16 times.

The Panel

1. Bill James is a baseball writer and analyst and the Senior Baseball Operations Advisor for the Boston Red Sox;
2. The BIS Video Scouts at Baseball Info Solutions (BIS) study every game of the season, multiple times, charting a huge list of valuable game details;
3. The man who created Strat-O-Matic Baseball—Hal Richman;
4. Named the best sports columnist in America by the AP Sports Editors, Joe Posnanski is a Senior Writer at Sports Illustrated and occasional columnist for the Kansas City Star;
5. For over twenty years, BIS owner John Dewan has collected, published and analyzed in-depth baseball statistics and is the author of The Fielding Bible and The Fielding Bible—Volume II;
6. ! Mat Olkin is a sabermetrics consultant to major league teams;
7. Hall-of-Famer Peter Gammons serves as a studio analyst on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight and Baseball Today;
8. Rob Neyer writes about baseball for ESPN.com and appears regularly on ESPN radio and ESPNews;
9. Todd Radcliffe is Lead Video Scout at Baseball Info Solutions;
10. The Tom Tango Fan Poll represents the results of a poll taken at the website, Tango on Baseball (www.tangotiger.net);
The three tie-breakers are Steve Moyer, president of BIS, Dan Casey, veteran Video Scout at BIS, and Dave Studenmund, one of the owners and the editor of The Hardball Times Baseball Annual.

Complete results and voting on THE 2009 FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS are presented in The Bill James Handbook 2010, published on or before November 1 every year. For our site for more information on The Fielding Bible Awards.

Used with permission from John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™, http://www.statoftheweek.com/.

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Remember back to grade school when a substitute teacher would step in for a day or two – it was mob rule in the classroom. The sub was basically a caretaker, a placeholder until the leader returned and everyone had to fall into line or else. When there is no leader, accountability goes out the window. GM Jim Hendry and manager Lou Piniella can only do so much when lacking the authority and support from above. Yes, Crane Kenney was there in name, but seemingly had no authority to make any bold moves. There was no payroll flexibility, and when a few players stepped way out of line, there was no one at the helm that really could do much about it. The Chicago Cubs were run by what amounts to a substitute teacher last year.

It seems the legal matters have been all but settled, the procedural mishegas has been satisfied, and most of the hurdles have been cleared – finally - the Ricketts family is ready to take the helm of the listless ship moored (beached?) at Clark & Addison.

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Performing well during the regular season is one thing, but producing in October wins championships. As we await the Twins-Tigers playoff and the Division Series, let’s take a look at the best playoff performers among active players.

Astros fans will remember Carlos Beltran’s torrid 2004, and Rays fans won’t forget B.J. Upton’s 2008. Albert Pujols is right in line with his regular season production as the best hitter in the game. Alex Gonzalez and Adam Everett have fared the worst in the postseason, each posting an On-base Plus Slugging below .500. For those interested, Alex Rodriguez ranks 28th of 104 qualifying players, Derek Jeter places 31st, and David Ortiz comes in 12th.

Because Earned Run Average is volatile, particularly in small samples, we rank pitchers based on Component Earned Run Average, which uses pitchers’ hits, walks, and home runs allowed to measure their effectiveness:

The top two names on this list should surprise no one, but Hideki Okajima has been nearly as successful. Alan Embree, owner of a career 4.59 regular-season Earned Run Average, has been stellar across seven postseasons (and five different teams). A broken leg will keep him on the Rockies’ bench this October.

Full postseason stats are available in the 2010 Bill James Handbook, available November 1.

Used with permission from John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™, http://www.statoftheweek.com/. 

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The broadbast team is Harry Caray, Steve Stone and Thom Brennaman. MJ’s plays right field and his first putout is off the bat of future substitute-Santo, Dave Otto. Jordan goes 2 for 5 in the game with a single, double and 2 RBIs – very respectable indeed. His first RBI is scored by future White Sox broadcaster Darrin Jackson.

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Teams are clinching playoff spots almost daily now that we’re in the last week of the season, but has anyone sewn up the MVP award? As we did last week for the Rookie of the Year candidates, let’s use the Total Runs metric first introduced in The Fielding Bible—Volume II to see who the MVP leaders are for each league. The key to Total Runs is that it takes into account three other components of the overall contributions of a player besides hitting: baserunning, playing defense, and playing an important defensive position.

In the National League, the engraver probably finished putting Albert Pujols‘ name on the MVP trophy back in June, but is there anyone that can challenge the two-time MVP?

Albert won the MVP award in 2008 but Chase Utley, thanks to his defense, was the total runs leader for that year. Utley is hot on Mr. Pujols’ trail once again this year. How many people would have had Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman in the top five in Total Runs? Zimmerman’s stellar season in the field (22 Defensive Runs Saved) helps him overcome any offensive (103 Runs Created) shortcomings. All in all, the Total Runs system likes Albert Pujols winning his third National League MVP award this year.

In the American League, the MVP debate is centering on Joe Mauer, Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, and Miguel Cabrera, but Total Runs suggests a few other options to consider:

*Pitchers use Pitching Runs Created from The Hardball Times website.

Neither Teixeira nor Cabrera appear in the top five in Total Runs and each player trails a teammate that doesn’t make this list. Teixeira is third on his own team (behind Jeter and Robinson Cano), while Curtis Granderson ranks above Cabrera in Detroit. Joe Mauer, considered by many to be the favorite to win the award, leads the American League candidates in Runs Created, but finds himself in fourth place behind Zack Greinke, Chone Figgins and Ben Zobrist. If you believe the numbers, and you believe that a pitcher should qualify for MVP voting on equal footing with hitters, and the MVP can come from a non-contending team, Grienke is your MVP. Do you believe?

The outstanding defense by Figgins and Zobrist catapult a pair of multi-faceted players to second and third place on the list. The numbers here don’t even factor in the tremendous value that each player brings to his respective team with their ability to play multiple positions at an elite level. While it is unlikely that either Figgins or Zobrist will win the award, their exceptional seasons will not go unnoticed here. When it’s all said and done, I’m quite comfortable with Mauer or Jeter winning the MVP award, but wouldn’t it be great if a Figgins or a Zobrist could be recognized for their defense and versatility by winning the award?

Used with permission from John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™, http://www.statoftheweek.com/.

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Bruce and Hood rightly condemned any such behavior – particularly directed toward a child. They continued by suggesting that Bradley has to be more of a professional and rise above this sort of distraction. I agreed. But then as I tought more about it, my outrage at the Bradley situation increased.

If the treatment of Milton Bradley’s son in school has any bearing on his preparation, mental concentration, demeanor in the clubhouse or play on the field, then he needs some very serious and deep self evaluation. How can you let that affect your career – whether you be an accountant, a landscaper, a janitor, or a professional baseball player? 

Take for example the personal challenges Ryan Dempster has faced this year. His newborn daughter was hosiptalized for months and he even commuted to be with her in the hospital between starts. If anyone would be entitled to some slack for personal reasons, it would be Dempster. He was dealing with serious health issues with his newborn child. Bradley on the other hand, was dealing with his kid allegedly being called names – admittedly inexcusable, terrible names, but names nonetheless. I have a son in first grade and can confirm kids can be cruel to one another. But none of what Bradley has been reported to be experiencing is even remotely life threatening.

Ryan Dempster on the other hand, carried himself like the professional he is. He made his starts, he pitched well, and he was a positive influence on his teammates.  Perhaps even an inspiration to his teammates. Bradley? He was an utter failure in all regards. The fans would have cut him a lot more slack if he conducted himself like a professional throughout his on-field struggles. As any Little Leaguer will tell you, it is important to try your best and have fun. In my view, Milton Bradley did neither in this season.

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Growing up in the 70’s, any fan of baseball had to appreciate Lasorda’s Dodgers even if they weren’t your team. I was a Cubs fan through and through, but Bill Buckner was my favorite player and he came from a top-shelf organization, the LA Dodgers. They had Garvey and Lopes, Cey and Russell, Smith and Baker, Yeager and John, Sutton and Rau, Rhoden and Hooton. But the face of the organization was manager Tommy Lasorda.

Two of my favorite Tommy Lasorda moments – of which there were many – involved the Cubs. The first was when the Cubs made a road trip to Dodger Stadium May 14, 1978 and feast or famine slugger Dave Kingman hit 3 HRs and 8 RBIs to win the game for the visitors from Chicago. After the game a reporter asked Tommy for his opinion of Kingman’s performance.  Listen to his passionate and profane repsonse:

My other enduring memory of Lasorda came in the twilight of his managerial career, probably 1995 or so. The Dodgers were in town, playing the Cubs at Wrigley. The game itself was forgettable except for this story.  Tommy Lasorda was a legend, maybe the best known major league baseball manager at the time. He was only the second manager of the Dodgers in the previous 40 or so years having succeeded Walter Alston in 1977.

So at some point in the game, the Dodgers center fielder turned an ankle or some similar minor injury. He went down and the trainer ran out. Then slowly emerging from the visitor dugout is the rotund (pre-weight loss pitchman), white haired baseball legend, manager Tom Lasorda. He too began to slowly jog out to the outfield to personally check on his player (could have been future Cub Todd Hollandsworth?). The crowd roared in a standing ovation as the Wrigley Field organist played a Tarantella. It seemed to take forever for Tommy to reach the outfield. The player was fine and stayed in the game. Lasorda jogged back to the dugout again to the standing-O and a Tarantella.

These stories each speak to the passion Lasorda has for the game. He always played the game the right way and now is a treasured ambassador for the sport. I tip my Cubs cap in his honor.  Happy birthday Tommy.

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Earlier this season, management at the Daily Herald decided to stop/limit their Cubs beat writer, Bruce Miles, from travelling with the team. Newspapers are under pressure to cut costs, but when coverage is affected, I think really calls into question a paper’s ability to compete. Bruce is an excellent reporter but in stripping his ability to be with the team on the road, isn’t he essentially a blogger when the Cubs aren’t in town?

Well, thanks to Bruce’s excellent reporting – in the clubhouse, on the road with the team in St. Louis – he broke an exclusive that is the talk of all sports. The comments reported by Bruce and published in the Daily Herald were the last straw for Cubs management, resulting in the suspension of Milton Bradley for the remainder of the season and likely his departure from the Cubs with 2 years remaining on his contract.

Kudos to Bruce Miles for the great work on reporting Bradley’s comments. It could not have happened had Bruce not been with the team on the road.

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With just over two weeks left in the 2009 season, let’s take a look at the top rookie hitters in all of baseball, using the version of Runs Created used in The Fielding Bible—Volume II:

Florida’s Chris Coghlan has been the best rookie hitter this year, but there’s much more to being a valuable baseball player. In The Fielding Bible—Volume II, we combine a hitter’s Runs Created with his baserunning and defensive contributions. We also take into account the difficultly of his defensive position, giving shortstops and catchers more credit for manning more vital defensive positions. The end result, Total Runs, gives us a good measure of a player’s total contribution on the field:

*Pitchers use Pitching Runs Created from The Hardball Times website.

In the American League, Elvis Andrus flies high above the pack. His 11 Defensive Runs Saved rates as the fourth best total of all players at his position. He also takes extra bases and plays excellent defense at one of the most difficult positions on the field. Factoring all of this into account, he should be the favorite as the American League’s top rookie.

*Pitchers use Pitching Runs Created from The Hardball Times website.

Over in the Senior Circuit, the race is much closer. J.A. Happ has been a key component of the Phillies’ title defense, but Colby Rasmus’s offensive production and defensive prowess in center field is edging him out for the time being. If either one stands out over the final two weeks, that might be enough to win the award.

Used with permission from John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™, http://www.statoftheweek.com/.

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