This is just a short conversation starter about the awards that have been announced so far.

Cliff Lee was kind of a no-brainer for AL Cy Young, but it's worth noting that his Indians were out of the race by the All-Star Break so Lee won the award pitching most of the season for a team that spent the Summer climbing back from nowhere to respectability.

Meanwhile, the NL award went (deservingly, in my opinion) to Tim Lincecum. This was significant because not only were the Giants a losing team but Lincecum fell four wins shy of Brandon Webb's total of 22. So a pitcher who came up two short of 20 wins beat out a pitcher who exceeded 20 wins by a couple. Score one for the voters, who actually looked beyond wins and losses in evaluating the Cy Young Award.

Today Albert Pujols was named NL MVP for the third-place Cardinals, beating out the league's HR and RBI leader, Ryan Howard, who played for the first place (and eventual World Champion) Phillies. The AL MVP will likely go to a playoff participant - perhaps Dustin Pedroia of the Wild Card Red Sox, perhaps Carlos Peña of the AL champion Rays - but it's possible Josh Hamilton will get some serious consideration, which could keep the trend going.

So far it really looks like the awards have emphasized individual credentials and not team performance or superficial statistics. Except for the Gold Glove - that one still needs a whole lotta work.

(UPDATE BY BASEBALLGIRL - 6:44PM)

I was going to post this in the morning, but thought I might as well chime in on this thread, since everyone is talking about it; I have some thoughts on the Award Show too.

Lest we at AN be charged with not caring about the latest baseball news, I thought I'd do a quick run-down on the MLB awards this year. I understand that it is barely relevent to the A's this year, but I'm sure an A's player had a vote somewhere, right?

AL MVP

Dustin Pedroia - In what turned out to be a runaway victory, Pedroia was named the 2008 AL MVP in a neat follow-up to his 2007 AL Rookie of the Year award. Only Cal Ripken Jr. and Ryan Howard can boast that feat, and Pedroia's field position is also rare; the last second baseman to win the AL MVP was in 1959. Pedroia hit .326 with 17 homeruns and 20 stolen bases this year, and added a Gold Glove. (I refuse to call it "gritty Gold Glove defense"; tm MLB.com.) Pedroia received 16 first place votes, 6 second place votes, and 4 third place votes. Justin Morneau took second place with 7 first place votes, 7 second place votes, and 6 third, and Kevin Youkilis (Pedroia's teammate) secured third, with 2 first place votes, 4 second, and 4 third. Mauer, Quentin, K-rod, Hamilton, A-rod, Pena, and Sizemore rounded out the top ten.

NL MVP

Albert Pujols - It's no surprise that Pujols found himself winning the NL MVP award for the second time in his career; he has finished in the top 10 in votes every season he's played. Pujols somewhat quietly put together an amazing season in 2008; hitting .357 with a .462 OBP, a 1.115 OPS, with 37 homeruns. His walk to strikeout ratio was 104/54, and he drove in 116 runs at the plate. Pujols garnered 18 first place votes, 10 second, and 2 third; he beat out Ryan Howard for the award. Howard finished with 12 first place votes, 8 second, and 6 third. Lidge (who finished 7th in voting) took two first place votes. Rounding out the top ten; Pujols, Howard, Braun, Ramirez, Berkman, Sabathia, Wright, Lidge, Delgado, and Aramis Ramirez.

AL Cy Young

Cliff Lee - Leading the AL in wins (and no one despises this stat more than baseballgirl) with 22, and ERA with 2.54, Lee put together an amazing season, and easily took the award, with 24 first place votes. Roy Halladay was his closest competition and only earned 4 first place votes. K-rod, Matsuzaka, and Rivera round out the top five.

NL Cy Young

Tim Lincecum - In what give me hope for those with baseball award voting power, Lincecum ran away with this award, despite not reaching the "magic" number of 20 wins, even though his main competitor did, in fact, have more than 20 wins, and four more than Lincecum himself. Lincecum struck out an amazing 265 batters over his dream season, and turned in stellar game after stellar game. Lincecum, with his 23 first place votes, beat out Brandon Webb, Johan Santana, Brad Lidge, and CC Sabathia; putting him in truly elite company; the best of the best in the NL this year.

AL Rookie of the Year

Evan Longoria - It wasn't even close, as Longoria won all 28 first place votes on his way to the first ROY in Tampa Bay history; a much deserved honor for one of the players responsible for the Rays' first World Series appearance. Despite missing thirty games with a wrist injury, Longoria still played enough great baseball to run away with the award, hitting .272 with 27 homeruns and 85 RBIs to beat out Alexei Ramirez, Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Aviles, and Armando Galarraga. If you are looking for A's coverage in this award wrap-up, here it is: Joey Devine received 1 second place vote, and our Brad Ziegler received 1third place vote. Congrats to both of them on their great seasons; bright spots in a 2008 sea of darkness.

NL Rookie of the Year

Geovany Soto - Another runaway award here; as Soto received 31 of 32 first place votes, leaving just one for second place Joey Votto. Soto hit .285 with 23 HR's and 86 RBI's in 2008 and is the first catcher since Mike Piazza to win the award. Jair Jurrjens, Jay Bruce, and Kosuke Fukudome rounded out the top five. (Edinson Volquez received 3 second place votes, but was ineligible as a rookie.)

AL Manager of the Year

Joe Maddon (Tampa Bay Rays) - I don't think there was another choice for this award. Taking a losing team in the same division as the Red Sox and Yankees, with the second-lowest payroll in the Major Leagues, to the post-season should be enough for Maddon to have guarenteed himself the award. Maddon simply needed one vote to be baseball's first unanimous Manager of the Year, but the elusive vote went to Ron Gardenhire instead. Mike Scioscia (pause for hairball cough) took third.

NL Manager of the Year

Lou Piniella (Chicago Cubs) - Sweet Lou Piniella took the Cubs to the post-season this year, and proved himself a good citizen of Chicago with the proceeds of this award. Per his contract, $100,000 will be donated to McCormick Foundation's Cubs Care because of his win. This is Piniella's third Manager of the Year award; he joins La Russa, Cox, Baker, and Leyland as the only managers to ever win three or more.  Piniella beat out Charlie Manuel, Fredi Gonzalez, Joe Torre, and Tony La Russa.

Gold Gloves (AL)

C - Joe Mauer
1B - Carlos Pena
2B - Dustin Pedroia
3B - Adrian Beltre
SS - Michael Young
OF - Torri Hunter, Grady Sizemore, Ichiro Suzuki
P - Mike Mussina

Gold Gloves (NL)

C - Yadier Molina
1B - Adrian Gonzalez
2B - Brandon Phillips
3B - David Wright
SS - Jimmy Rollins
OF - Nate McLouth, Carlos Beltran, Shane Victorino
P - Greg Maddux

There we have it. Did they get it right? Who was omitted? What would you chage? Discuss.

If you have nothing better to do (and I know you don't) and you live in or near Berkeley (and I know you should), feel free to drop by Sunday to my school (Black Pine Circle)'s annual "half carnival half crafts fair" known as Cornucopia.

"Gee, Nico, sounds interesting! What is Cornucopia?" Cornucopia features carnival activities, such as a dunk tank and bounce house, and a veritable plethora of arts/crafts booths set up by local merchants who sell everything from t-shirts and scarves to pottery and jewelry.

"Wow, must be expensive." Why no, italicized voice-over, it isn't. Admission is free to all, with dollar tickets sold for the various activities and items, and the proceeds from tickets and items sold going to Black Pine Circle School (a non-profit) and/or to the local merchants who set up tables to peddle offer their wares.

"Now I'm all atwitter! When is Cornucopia?" It's tomorrow - Sunday - from 10am-4pm, and yours truly, aka me, will be there for at least the first half of the day. From 10am-12pm you can find me at the dunk tank. No, you cannot dunk me but you can buy tickets from me, and if you have better aim than Daniel Cabrera you can probably dunk one of my awesome volunteer students.

"Cool! Where is it, exactly?" It's all along 7th Street in Berkeley, between University Ave. and Addison St. The entire block is closed to traffic for this event, which is aimed at children of all ages as well as adults. So if you can find "7th and University" or "7th and Addison" in Berkeley, you can find Cornucopia. If you can find children being submerged in water against their will, you can find me. Special promotion: Mention AN and receive a free slap on the ass!

"That's all great, but how exactly does this relate to baseball or the A's?" Shut up. And see you there!

A plausible scenario popped into my head this morning, after about 18 hours (half of them spent sleeping amidst strange dreams that featured Matt Holliday, my old third grade teacher, Siamese twins who looked vaguely like Poochini, and Bea Arthur) of trying to figure out how it made sense for a rebuilding team with an increasingly bright future to trade young talent for a player who will be negotiating through Scott Boras this time next year.

The notion of the A's becoming so good for 2009 that this could be the year, in the next five, that they "just went for it, all in," does not compute. Neither does the expectation that Oakland will be able to - maybe even wish to - spend in the neighborhood of $20million/year to keep Holliday beyond 2009. How does it all make sense? How do the A's become better now and better from 2010 on, after this trade?

And then I remembered how Mark Mulder became Dan Haren until he became Brett Anderson, and I put a bunch of Hot Stove rumors together, and something made sense.

The A's need a right-handed power hitter in the middle of the order, in 2009, and they need one beyond 2009. That problem is solved for 2009 with the addition of Holliday, and Beane still has the payroll flexibility left to make more upgrades so that the team can be seriously competitive in 2009. The Red Sox have expressed interest in signing Holliday when he becomes a free agent and they can well afford the kind of money it will take to lure Holliday to Boston. In choosing to allocate big bucks to make Holliday the right-handed hitting corner OFer of choice, the Red Sox would say goodbye to a free agent that the A's seriously considered acquiring this past July: Jason Bay.

Due to his age and his agent, Bay will come at more of a reasonable free agent price, but he is still good enough to be a solid middle of the order bat helping the A's generate enough offense to support a pitching staff that will be very good by 2010 and only getting better.

Holliday now, Bay later. All for the price of Street, Smith, Gonzalez, and the money it will take to sign Bay - not the money it will take to sign Holliday. And instead of waiting for Bay to become available before building a decent offense, the A's have "Bay and more" in 2009 behind good pitching, then Bay in 2010-13 behind great pitching.

Now it all makes sense. Other than the fact that my success rate in predicting Billy Beane's actual moves is roughly 0.0%. But at least it makes sense.

As wretched as the A's offense has been lately and as solid as the pitching has been for years, it is counter-intuitive to think that if the A's plan to contend in 2009 they most urgently need to use their resources to add a starting pitcher, not another hitter, to the current team. But as much as I would like to see Dunn's power, Furcal's non-Crosbyness, or Giambi's solid OPS added to the current offensive attack, pitching wins and currently the A's are poised to have too little of it for each of the next two seasons.

The acquisition of Holliday, with no guarantee of keeping him beyond 2009, signals to me that the A's feel more confidence than at any time since 2005 that Eric Chavez will be able to man 3B for a productive season and so I am going to make the assumption, for now, that he returns to the lineup as a middle of the order presence - even if it means 20 HR and 80 RBI instead of the 30/100 he used to accomplish. With Holliday, Chavez, and Cust flanked by Suzuki, Sweeney, Buckingham, the A's lineup is already improved from awful to ok. It's not great, but you can win with an average offense. The A's can't win with average pitching.

Right now the 2009 rotation has an ace in Duke, but one who cannot be counted on to make 30 starts. Gallagher is pushed way up to the #2 spot before he is necessarily ready to pitch at that level. At #3 you have to put someone who has not yet proven conclusively that he is more than a #5 - among your choices are Braden, Eveland, Gio Gonzalez - and if Mazzaro, Simmons, Anderson or Cahill emerge on the major league scene, it is unreasonable to pencil them in as high as #3 in their first season.

Enter Derek Lowe, a solid #2 starter whose value may get a bit overlooked amidst the drooling over Sabathia, Sheets, and Burnett. Now you can drop Gallagher to #3 in the rotation, the best of Braden, Eveland, and Gio to #4, another to #5. Rookies who come up have less pressure, as they can be tucked into the back of the rotation and can slide up to #3 or #2 come 2010, 2011. What a difference one addition to the front of the rotation can make - it's what the A's gave up in Joe Blanton.

I would argue that if the A's went out and signed Dunn or Furcal right now, they would still not be contenders in 2009 with the current rotation, but that if they signed only Lowe you could make a better case that the team would have enough pieces in place to compete as is.

Sure I'd like to see the A's add both another solid hitter and another solid starting pitcher. But given that Oakland only has so much payroll left to burn and given the importance of not giving up too much of the young talent, if the A's have one more key move they can make, let it be to add a good pitcher. Then inquire quietly about guys like Ty Wiggington and Ryan Garko, and see if you can piece together a few more runs on the cheap.

UPDATE: 8:14pm PST It has just come to my attention that LongTimeFan does not like Derek Lowe, does not want the A's to acquire Derek Lowe under any circumstances, and that it is important for me to clarify that the A's acquiring Derek Lowe would be a very ungood thing indeed. Please interpret this post as being only about "the concept of adding a pitcher around the ability level of Derek Lowe, but most certainly not Lowe himself." Thank you.

Whether you support the candidate who promises to bring more offense to the middle infield, or the one who promises to bring Bobby Crosby; whether you voted today for Ozuna or McCann; whether you believe that revenue sharing is "socialism" or that Jamie Moyer would be a terrific candidate for president in about 17 years; no matter what your leanings, chances are that baseball and the A's feel strangely insignificant today and I think it would be like ignoring the "Elephant in the room" - hi Stomper!!! - not to acknowledge this.

To put it into baseball terms, today will be a day of either Jackie Robinson or Pam Postema historic significance and that's not even why you care. You care because there are more important things in the world than baseball. And you're here because you need a distraction and you seek out a community of people who are equally in need of a distraction, are equally insane in their passion for baseball and the A's, and are so mentally and verbally unstable so as to be entertaining. We can help.

If the A's pursue a free agent to upgrade the offense, their choices all come with significant downsides for which they must overpay anyway. I kind of sort them (in alphabetical order) as follows:

Casey Blake
Skills (Blake is a good hitter and fielder, not a great one, and is not truly an "impact player")

Pat Burrell
Age (must pay for some decline years)
Defense (must add a poor OFer at a position where there are many good defensive OFers, and potentially good hitting OFers, who would be blocked.

Adam Dunn
Defense (must add a poor 1B/OFer at a position where there are many good defensive 1B/OFers, and potentially good hitting 1B/OFers, who would be blocked.
Left-handed (if you care)
Strickouts!!!!111 (sorry, I had to)

Rafael Furcal
Health (the A's, of all teams, should be wary of health questions)
Slugging (Furcal is the only player on this list who is not a real HR threat)

Jason Giambi
Age (even if he helps the A's get a bit better now, at 38 he will be gone by the time the A's expect to be special)
Defense (at 1B he makes your infield defense worse and at DH he forces you to play Cust in the OF)
Left-handed (if you care)

Manny Ramirez
Age (even if he helps the A's get a bit better now, at 38 he will be gone by the time the A's expect to be special)
Cost (Ramirez will be paid annually like Teixeira, but will have Manny's attitude and defense)

Mark Teixeira
Cost (the combination of Teixeira's ability and Scott Boras suggest that Teixeira will seek upwards of a 10 year and/or $200million commitment, creating a high level of risk and payroll allocation for even big market teams)

Interestingly the A's, whose already small (3rd lowest in MLB) payroll has recently shrunk even more with the departures of Harden and now Embree, could afford to put a whole lotta eggs in one basket and bid for Teixeira, who has the fewest negatives surrounding the combination of age, health, defense, and ability to balance an A's lineup. At 27 now, Teixeira will probably still be a good player in 10 years, when his annual salary will also seem more reasonable in comparison to how it will look on the day he signs his next contract.

It's an intriguing thought that the A's could make one huge splash, rather than several Blake/Giambi/Furcal type ripples, and could do precisely what they generally try to avoid doing: commit a high percentage of payroll to one player who might become the Jermaine Dye of five years ago or the Eric Chavez of today.

It's even exciting to think that by making one huge commitment one time, the A's could consider Daric Barton as expendable as Huston Street and the young lefty starter of your choice, and could dangle an awful lot of talent in order to solve deficiencies in areas such as SS.

And spending that kind of money on a single player, no matter what position they play or how the rest of your payroll looks at the moment, is almost always a mistake and is the kind of mistake that can haunt and cripple a team for years. Would it be this time, with this team?

Baseballgirl may have a more comprehensive wrap forthcoming, but let me offer my congratulations to the Phillies for a Game 5 victory that took only three days. Most here picked the Rays to win, but I wasn't shocked at the result because while the Phillies were not one of baseball's best teams throughout 2008, they were very good, played better and better as the Summer wore on, and had enough starting pitching to ride on the shoulders of a deep offense and strong bullpen.

Good pitching beats good hitting, but do Brett Myers, Jamie Moyer, and Joe Blanton constitute "good pitching," or did Carlos Peña, Evan Longoria and Co. go cold at the most inopportune time? These are among the many questions to be debated in the post-mortems - which, sadly, will last for about five months.

On a more personal note, I hope AN will not "go dead" following the World Series. It's too awesome a community to "hang out with" for me to able to accept hibernation just because there aren't any actual, y'know, games happening. Stick around - we'll find stuff to talk about - and let's embrace the "O" word together: the Offseason. :-(

A game that featured three Philly solo HRs early to give Philadelphia a 4-1 lead, and a B.J. Upton speed run (infield hit, steal, steal, throwing error) to tie it 4-4, came down to an ugly bottom of the 9th: Hit by pitch, wild pitch, wild throw, and then an infield dribbler that might have gone foul but on which Evan Longoria made a desperation heave to the plate - leaving Rays fans to do the heaving into the morning.

A great game in what has been a tight World Series. Tonight the Rays scored all four runs without the benefit of an RBI hit and the Phillies got just their second hit with a RISP in 32 at bats - and both are infield hits.

My only beef with strategy tonight is that in that bottom of the 9th, the Rays were going to have to pitch either to Dobbs or Stairs, and Maddon chose to walk the bases loaded, putting a sometimes wild pitcher in Balfour in a "no margin for error" situation. I say pitch to Dobbs where at least a walk won't beat you. But clearly, that was not the biggest problem the Rays faced in the bottom of the 9th. Just an all out implosion at the wrong time. Game 4 tomorrow, Sonnanstine against our formerly-own Blanton.

4-1 Phillies going to the 7th. If you're rooting for the Rays, this is a mojo thread.

Just to keep folks updated, Game Three of the World Series will be delayed by rain at the start but the prevailing sentiment is that the rain is letting up, the field drains well, the powers that bud would rather start later than be interrupted in the middle, and they expect to play baseball tonight in Philadelphia - but not starting on time.

So in true AN fashion, please start commenting, beginning with baseball and then transitioning gradually (or suddenly) into a strange mish-mash of discourse including - but not limited to - unicorns, porn, corn, scorned unicorns eating corn in porn, and possibly Bjorn Borg.

The Starting Lineups for when we start:

Iwamura - 2B
Upton - CF
Peña - 1B
Longoria - 3B
Crawford - LF
Navarro - C
Gross - RF
Bartlett - SS
Garza - P

Rollins - SS
Werth - RF
Utley - 2B
Howard - 1B
Burrell - LF
Victorino - CF
Feliz - 3B
Ruiz - C
Moyer - P

UPDATE (6:25pm PDT): First pitch is scheduled for around 7:00pm PDT. It is believed that Jamie Moyer will be able to stay awake late enough to still make the start.

There have been some questionable decisions made in this post-season, even dating back to before the first game was played. Here are some conversation starters in the "hindsight is 20/20 - but sometimes foresight is too" department:

* As the team with the best record, the Angels got to decide the format for the ALDS, choosing between two options for how many off-days the teams would have. One option would have forced each team (Angels and Red Sox) to go four starters deep (or pitch guys on three days rest), but the Angels chose the format that allowed each team to use only three starters. That eliminated Jered Weaver and Tim Wakefield from the rotations, which I found odd because the Angels' starting pitching depth is one of their strengths. Weaver threw the ball well in relief in the ALDS, while Wakefield got lit up when he finally started in the ALCS. Would the Angels have been better off had they chosen the other format?

* Leading 7-1 and needing just 7 outs to clinch the ALCS, Joe Maddon let his right-handed reliever, Grant Balfour, pitch to David Ortiz with two runners on base, when he had two lefties available - J.P. Howell, who was extremely effective in 2008, and Trevor Miller, a LOOGY reserved for just these kinds of moments. Maddon likes to talk about "jug runs" - those runs which go for the jugular and put a game away. This was a spot in the game where he needed a "jug out" - an out that would leave the Red Sox down 6 runs with only 6 outs left and no one on base. Maddon did not manage against "the worst thing that could happen" (an Ortiz HR that got Boston back in the game). Ortiz was 2/20 lifetime against Howell and Miller combined, with one hit off of each.

Overall, I think Maddon's management of the bullpen has been pretty suspect, underusing Chad Bradford, a veteran with an outstanding post-season track record, overusing Balfour, who is understandably wobbly in his first ever post-season, bringing Dan Wheeler in for a seven-out save when he had better situational options available to handle the 7th inning, and neglecting to take advantage of matchups when he has three lefties (including Price) in the bullpen. I love Maddon and think he should be Manager of the Year hands down, but I haven't been impressed with his decisions these last two games.

Your thoughts? Other decisions that stand out in this post-season so far? See you at 5:00pm PDT for a very important game.