Joe Posnanski, Still Awesome

Dave · November 18, 2007 at 8:18 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

If you don’t read a lot of stuff about baseball that isn’t directly Mariner related, you may not know who Joe Posnanski is. He covers the Kansas City Royals and doesn’t go on any of those talking heads shows on ESPN. So, he’s not a household name, but regardless of that fact, he’s still the best baseball writer alive.

For instance, check out his latest post on his blog, where he lays out a very interesting argument for why the Baseball Writers Association of America – a maligned group, no doubt – have done a good job of making the MLB awards relevant. I never thought I’d agree with that position, but I don’t think I can argue with his case.

It’s worth reading, just like everything else Posnanski writes.

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12 Responses to “Joe Posnanski, Still Awesome”

  1. msb on November 18th, 2007 8:49 pm

    I recommend you all to his recent book, written following Buck O’Neal around for a year (after many years of friendship) “The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip through Buck O’Neil’s America” with the startling (and great) comment:

    “… he had known players to bend the rules to win– they corked bats, spit on the ball, popped amphetimines, stole signals, and even loaded up on coffee for the caffeine. They wanted to win. “The only reason players in my time didn’t use steroids,” he would say sometimes, “is because we didn’t have them.””

  2. msb on November 18th, 2007 9:01 pm

    oh and….

    If people are allowed to negotiate a deal where a 10th place MVP vote will earn them a half million … well, the writers can’t be a part of that.

    Joe? I give you Alex Rodriguez:

    Award bonuses:
    $50,000 for finishing 6th-10th in MVP vote

    $0.2M for WS MVP or finishing 2nd-5th in MVP vote

    $0.1M each for making All Star team, receiving most All Star votes, Silver Slugger, making post-season AP, Baseball America or Sporting News All Star team, being named player of the year by AP, Baseball America or Sporting News

    $0.15M each for LCS or LDS MVP

  3. bedir on November 18th, 2007 9:20 pm

    msb, ARod’s bonuses are for FINISHING in those spots, not for receiving a single vote.

  4. msb on November 18th, 2007 9:23 pm

    close enough 🙂

  5. katal on November 18th, 2007 9:46 pm

    I haven’t heard of Joe Posnanski before, but I’m reading over his blog archives right now. Great stuff. Thanks for the link.

  6. lailaihei on November 19th, 2007 2:09 am

    That article was great, I’m definitely going to check out more of this guy’s blogs.

  7. Evan on November 19th, 2007 10:33 am

    Posnanski is generally great, but I can’t say I agree with this piece. Yes, the BBWAA are the folks who make the awards relevant, because they write about them a lot. Go figure. They both vote on and publicise the awards.

    I see no reason to stop Schilling from having this sort of clause in his contract. Just as you would be handing Curt Schilling $1 million by voting for him, you’d also be stealing $1 million from the team. The incentives cancel each other out.

  8. Paul B on November 19th, 2007 1:12 pm

    The incentives cancel each other out.

    Although it only takes one time… (“I’ll give you a cut if you vote for me.”)

  9. Evan on November 19th, 2007 3:29 pm

    The BBWAA already vote for idiotic reasons. If this makes the general public finally reach that opinion, what’s wrong with that?

  10. BigB on November 19th, 2007 10:04 pm

    So why wouldn’t a New York reporter vote for Schilling just to see the Sox lose out on a million?

  11. Evan on November 20th, 2007 12:55 pm

    And given the NL MVP results today, the awards are increasingly dumb.

    I hope more players get clauses like Schilling’s.

  12. Todd S. on November 20th, 2007 1:57 pm

    I’m with Evan on this one. I don’t really see any downside to trying something different. I’m willing to risk the small chance that it will be worse.

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