Ooooh. Shiny. What?

It’s MLB MVP trivia time, folks! Pull up a stool and grab a brew and get ready to impress all the barfolk watching the Colts and Jags who might not actually care about baseball anymore. It’s okay though. I understand. . Winter is not a baseball fan. Winter is cold and annoying and heartless like that.  Keep nursing your beer and the sunshine and baby animals and baseball will be back again… someday.

All together, now:

I now affirm that baseball season will return. Baseball has not abandoned me. I will make it through this winter. Spring will come.

Very good. Moving on…

The Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award was first awarded in the year 1931 by the Baseball Writers Association of America. The voting for the award takes place before the postseason, but the winners are not announced until after the World Series.

There is one “winner” of the award from the National League and one winner from the American League. However, in 1979, there was a tie for the National League vote, and two players, Keith Hernandez of St. Louis, and Willie Stargell of Pittsburgh both received the honor of NL MVP.

» Continue reading “Throwback Thursday: MVP Award History & Whatnot”

The current NL standings via MLB.com

As of Friday, the MLB Playoffs officially begin! Last time, I went over what some of the Playoff terminology meant and how to actually get to the playoffs, but what about what’s happening right now this season? Well, here’s where we stand:

With the exception of the 2nd Wild Card team, the National League teams are all set.  We have the Washington Nationals representing the NL East (FYI…this is their very first division title as the “Nationals”).  Then we have the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Central (who are tied with the Nationals for the best record in all of baseball) and the San Francisco Giants in the NL West.

» Continue reading “Baseball For Beginners: So, Who’s Going To The Playoffs?”

The MLB season consists of 6 months of games (162 games to be exact), so it’s not uncommon for a lot of people to really start paying attention in September with only a month left to play.  This is the time of the year when you pretty much know if your team has a shot at making the Postseason or not.

ASIDE:  Honestly, it’s fun to follow a team during the ENTIRE season…learning about the ups and downs, knowing the team’s strengths/weaknesses, etc… but for whatever reason people think 6 months of games EVERYDAY is too much.  I’ll never understand this because baseball is the best, but what do I know.  :)

With the season winding down (the official last day of the 2012 regular season is Oct. 3), you’ll hear a lot of terminology thrown around and I thought it would be nice to give you a few definitions and explain how the Playoffs break down.

» Continue reading “Baseball For Beginners: Getting To The Postseason”

National League East Standings. Image via MLB.com

Washington Nationals

Despite losing the series to the Marlins, not to mention with the rubber match culminating in an [embarrassing] 8-0 loss, the Nats continue to prove that it is still possible to move up from the top. Right now their record is 86-54.

Manager Davey Johnson announced that ace Stephen Strasburg won’t be back on the mound this season, due to inning limits in place from his Tommy John surgery in 2010. Of course, the news also came after one of Stras’s worst starts of the season- he allowed seven runs through only five innings. Lefty John Lannan should pitch against the Mets at Citi field this Wednesday in Stephen’s stead.

Meanwhile, on the mound Monday against the Mets, Gio Gonzalez will toss to try to be the first to reach 19 wins this season. Cy Young-speak continues to stir around the Washington southpaw.

» Continue reading “NL East Recap: We’re Going Streaking!”

NL East Standings via MLB.com

Washington Nationals
Is it just me, or is Bryce Harper quite saucy? Apparently he had some beef with the Notorious Ozzie Guillen of the Marlins regarding pine tar, which just goes to show you, maybe sometimes it takes two to tango.

Ian Desmond sat out of the Nats lineup on Sunday due to an oblique injury that has been plaguing the All-Star-nominated shortstop for months. In fact, Desomnd opted-out of his All-Star nomination for healing time.

Read more on the Nationals on Win For Teddy

» Continue reading “NL East Recap: In Repair?”

Amidst the rabble rabble of the Kansas City-boos-Robinson Cano narrative and the NO-A-THIRD-BASEMAN-WITH-A-CUTE-NICKNAME-SHOULD-NOT-START arguments, there was an actual exhibition game that was played.

And this time, folks, it counts.

I don’t know what happened, but Justin Verlander was rather … not himself in the first inning, giving up five earned runs. So the AL had that going for them early on.

The Giants players National League drove in runs upon runs upon runs. But the most notable one was this guy:

He drinks your milk. He drinks it up! (via @jp_on_rye)

Melky Cabrera went 2-for-3 on the night with two RBI, two runs scored and one home run. His fellow All-Star Giants also made some noise in the game: National League starter Matt Cain pitched two scoreless innings and got the win. Starting third baseman Pablo Sandoval went 1- for-2 with a run scored and a three-run triple.

Ryan Braun made a pretty spectacular catch in the fourth inning to rob Prince Fielder of at least a double. Which was probably rivaled by Bryce Harper’s derp moment in the fifth.

Other than that, it was a pretty ho-hum game. Quiet, but then again, what else would you expect from a game that was a blowout from the first inning?

But, alas. Baseball fans everywhere endured yet another game with one Joe Buck and one Tim McCarver and lived to tell the tale. Or put the TV on mute.

The National League beat the Ameican League by the final score of 8-0. San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera was named MVP of the All-Star Game.

As you may or may not know, next Tuesday July 10 is the MLB All-Star Game, a.k.a. the “Midsummer Classic.” Since many of you may not be familiar with the All-Star Game or even how the teams are chosen, I thought that would be a great topic for this week.

The MLB All-Star game is the halfway point of the MLB season (although it’s not always exactly halfway through the season). Currently, teams get 4 days off as a “break” in the middle of the season (usually the 2nd week of July) and the All-Star game is played on the Tuesday during that break.  The major significance of the game is that the winner (AL or NL) gets home field advantage during the World Series. This “reward” began in 2003 and has been controversial ever since.

The location of the game is chosen several years in advance (this year the game is in Kansas City) and goes back and forth between an NL park and an AL park each year.

» Continue reading “Baseball For Beginners: The All-Star Game”

Did you know that Major League Baseball consists of 2 different leagues?  Did you also know that these leagues have different rules?  Yeah, just one of the more confusing quirky things about Major League Baseball!

So those 2 leagues…

1. The National League (NL), which currently consists of 16 teams, was founded in 1876 and is often referred to as the “Senior Circuit”.
2. The American League (AL), which currently consists of 14 teams, was founded in 1901 and is often referred to as the “Junior Circuit” since it was founded after the NL.

Current members of the NL:  New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves, Miami Marlins, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros*, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks

Current members of the AL: New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics

The big difference between the two leagues is the designated hitter (not to be confused with the designated hotter) or Major League Baseball Rule 6.10.  The designated hitter, or DH, is a player that only hits (just as the name suggests).  The DH hits in the pitcher’s spot, but doesn’t have to be used.  Since most pitchers aren’t very good hitters (pitchers spend most of their practice time throwing, they usually don’t get much hitting practice and therefore aren’t good at it), you very rarely seen the DH not used during a game.

» Continue reading “Baseball For Beginners: American vs National”

Congrats - the Brewers Nation can't wait to chant "MVBraun" every time he's at the plate from now on. (image via Brewers blog)

Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun won NL MVP, earning 20 out of 32 first place votes. He is the first Brewer to win MVP since Robin Yount won the AL award in 1989 and the third MVP winner in Brewers history.

Teammate Prince Fielder was third in the NL MVP balloting. This is the first time since 1982 that the Brewers has two players finish in the top five of MVP voting.

The race for MVP seemed to be a close contest between Braun and LA Dodgers CF Matt Kemp, who placed second in the balloting.

However, the voting members of the BBWAA clearly thought that Braun outperformed Kemp this season.

Braun was integral to the Brewers’ post season run, which garnered them the NLCS title. He also was consistently impressive at the plate and on base- Braun batted .332 for the season with 33 home runs, 111 RBI, 109 runs, and 33 stolen bases. Performing well under pressure, Braun had several impressive game-determining at bats in the postseason.

Brewers teammates, including John Axford, who  received one eighth place vote and two ninth place votes, other MLB players, and various members of the sports community and sports media offered Braun congratulations via Twitter shortly after the announcement.

Braun remained humble, posting a message on his Facebook shortly after the announcement, thanking his fans: “I just wanted to say thank you to all of you fans for the tremendous support throughout the years. I’m truly honored to receive this award and couldn’t have done it without all of you.”

Find complete NL MVP voting results here.

Hopefully Melvin is currently contermplating how to convince Fielder to stay. Or he's wondering if his mustache is more impressive than John Axford's. (image via bettor.com)

Congratulations, Doug Melvin!

If you don’t know who the man behind the mustache is, Melvin is the general manager and executive vice president of the Brewers. Yesterday he was named as a co-winner of the 2011 Major League Baseball Executive of the Year award from the Sporting News.  I have faith in Melvin after the moves he made last season to bring in talent. He helped put the Brew Crew in position to make a deep playoff run which possibly stopped Prince Fielder from calling a moving company and leaving town sooner than later.

But this offseason, we need Melvin to really work his magic.

The main story cooking for the Brewers and all of us as fans during this hot stove season is will Fielder re-sign with the club? A few moves were recently made that could have an impact on money being available for Fielder and other free-agent options the team is looking to bring in. Could it be…? It seems as if nothing is an impossibility or off limits this hot stove season.

» Continue reading “Kotsay and Counsell Out; Melvin Keeps the Brewers’ Hot Stove Cooking”