Happenings

There have been several little items in the news over the past few days. I'll touch on them as best I can ...

• Bartolo Colon won the AL Cy Young. I wasn't surpised, although it shows how much the voters show ignorant fealty to win. Jayson Stark, whom I don't always see eye to eye with, does a very good job of explaining what a better choice Johan Santana was.
• Huston Street was named the AL Rookie of the Year, while Ryan Howard won the NL Award. Both are fine choices, although I was leaning toward Francouer in the NL. The AL Manager of the Year is named tomorrow, the NL Cy Young on Thursday, and NL Mgr. of the Year on Friday.
• The Winter Meetings have already started, with GMs gathering from all over to talk and stuff. I d0n't see anything particularly fruitful coming out of the meetings, as it's still pretty early. Especially since L.A. and Boston had to send their 4 or 5 lieutenants to cover for their lack of a GM.
• Jim Bowden is going to interview for the Boston GM job, as is former Baltimore co-GM Jim Beattie. Bowden would be a pretty dreadful choice. He's a trade-happy guy who isn't too poor at his job, but can't build a farm sytem or evaluate talent, both of which should be at the top of Boston's priority list. The smartest thing would be to stay on the current plan and promote someone from within. Henry and Lucchino's choice will tell us a lot about their future plans. If they promote someone from within (or someone new and clever), then they're probably going to keep on the Epstein path. If Bowden gets the job, it'll be the Dan Duquette years all over again, as ownership will be more interested in signing a name GM than actually winning.
• Bud Selig said that baseball would decide on the owner for the Nationals right after the World Series. Surrrrre, Bud. Considering the way MLB has handled this franchise already, this ship of fools should sail on for a while now, with Selig looking like a complete money-grubbing bonehead.
• Pete Rose, Jr. was arrested for selling a steroid alternative. He pled guilty. The news story from the Cincinnati Enquirer said that this would finally end Rose's major league dreams. Considering that Rose is 35, and his previous MLB experience in Cincinnati was a dismal failure, it could only be described as a major league "delusion" if he or the Enquirer ever thought he was going to make it back.
• Former Phillies pitcher and free agent Ugueth Urbina was arrested in Venezuela on charges of attempted murder. Workers on Urbina's ranch claim he and others attacked them with machetes and tried to set them on fire. Yikes. Given Urbina's sketchy reputation in the past, this should drive down his free agent price a wee bit. Of course, that's assuming that he doesn't spend the next 25 years-to-life in a Venezuelan prison, which can't be the most pleasant of places.

I'll be back soon with a look at closers. I've spent some time now collecting data to test a big major league truism: closers perform worse in non-save situations than they do in save situations. I've got the data from the past 4 seasons and some historical perspective as well.

Later, kiddies.