Dave Paisley

So it’s out with the Democrats and in with the Johnsons. Out with Jesse Ventura and in with Tony LaRussa.

It appears that Major League Baseball finally got something right while tinkering with the way they do business — the post-season awards got moved up a bit this year. Instead of waiting through a whole week of nothing but rookie and manager awards, this year we get the Cy Young awards in the first week. Woohoo! Not to mention double awards on the Rookie and Manager days.

However, the awards so far have been somewhat anti-climactic. The rookie awards weren’t particularly exciting or hard fought as both Jason Jennings and Eric Hinske were deserving winners. Then on Tuesday, Randy Johnson’s Cy Young rampage was pretty much a foregone conclusion after Curt Schilling’s late season swoon.

Wednesday saw Mike Scioscia get the American League Manager of the Year award, which surprised me. Not that he didn’t deserve it, just that I thought Ron Gardenhire was a more likely BBWAA choice. As it turned out, Gardenhire was a surprising third, behind Art Howe also. I thought as a first year manager he was a shoo-in, but maybe the voters didn’t think the Twins were tested enough in a very weak AL Central. Certainly the fact that Scioscia and Howe finished 1-2 in a tight division race seems to confirm that it meant more to the voters.

Then there’s Tony LaRussa winning the National League Manager of the Year award in St Louis. You have to think this was a sympathy vote, as well as an acknowledgement that LaRussa did a pretty good job keeping the team together mentally with so much off-field tragedy. I don’t think anyone would have been surprised if the Cards had tanked on field after what happened, but they pulled through the difficult middle of the season and finished with a rush. And it’s not as if the other candidates were head and shoulders above anything. Baker, Tracy, Brenly and Cox all did their jobs without providing anything notably different.

Speaking of Baker, it looks like he’s destined for the Cubs, given that Seattle is unlikely to give him the length of contract he’s probably looking for. With the Seattle short list down to four, and current pitching coach Bryan Price the alleged manager of the future, Baker is unlikely to take the role of stopgap mentor. It could all just be misdirection on the part of Seattle GM Pat Gillick, but Gillick hasn’t shown much of a knack for deviousness in his tenure in Seattle.

Thursday sees the AL Cy Young vote published, and I expect to see Barry Zito beat out Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe. Given Pedro’s own Operation Shutdown at the end of the season I wouldn’t be shocked if the voters drop him to third overall. The BBWAA tends to be pretty old school about antics like that.

Looking ahead to next week, the National League MVP is announced on Monday. It should be one of the more fascinating votes in recent memory, with Barry Bonds being the main contender. Even though his numbers didn’t match last year’s prodigious home run total, he was widely recognized this season as the most fearsome hitter. None of his competition beat him by enough in any category to be a real threat.

The one fly in the Barry ointment is Randy Johnson. While pitchers typically get short shrift in the MVP voting, Johnson’s four straight Cy Youngs put him fair and square in MVP voters’ crosshairs. It should be an interesting tussle between the BBWAA voters who don’t like Bonds and the BBWAA voters who don’t like to vote for pitchers.

The American league award is announced Tuesday, and I’ll be shocked if Alex Rodriguez doesn’t win it hands down, David Halberstam or not.

Bonds or Johnson? Pedro or Zito? Send thoughts to Dave Paisley along with three Cocoa Puffs(tm) boxtops to :drdjp@strikethree.com.

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