You Down With M-V-P? Yeah, You Know Me!

The National League and American League MVPs were announced earlier this week.  Quite frankly, neither one was much of a surprise.

Joey Votto won the NL Award over Albert Pujols and Carlos Gonzales.  Legitimately, any of those three could have won the award this season, but Votto still managed to garner all but one first place vote.  For my Reds friends who now want to talk smack about Votto getting it over Pujols - once Votto has finished in the Top 4 nine times in ten seasons (and 9th in the other season), we'll talk.

In a rags to riches story that could only be written in Arlington, Josh Hamilton won the AL MVP, just a few short years after everybody thought he wasted his talent on booze and drugs.  I'm not sure what the moral of the story is, but I have a feeling that if you are a recovering drug abuser, then I'm pretty sure that Arlington, TX is your place of fairy tale endings.

BLB Jinx in the Making?

One day after using Josh Hamilton as the small-sample size example refuting mainstream media's "Year of the Pitcher," Josh Hamilton goes 0-3 in the Rangers loss to the Angels.  Is this a sign that BLB is a bad thing for such players?

In an interview with Orioles' player Luke Scott on Wednesday, BLB was told: "No, I don't believe in hexes, or jinxes, or sparkly vampires, Muppets, or albinos.  I can't believe that grown men have these kind of superstitions."

In totally unrelated news, Luke Scott of the Baltimore Orioles injured his hamstring Wednesday night from rounding the bases after hitting the go-ahead HR in the 7th inning.

Year of the Pitcher?

Many across the media are referring to 2010 as the Year of the Pitcher, but is there enough evidence to support this overly optimistic view on the 2010 pitching season?

Consider the facts:

• 2 perfect games
• 1 "should've been" perfect game
• 2 no-hitters
• 21 starters with ERA under 3.00
• 9 starters with ERA under 2.50
• 6 starters with winning % over .800

It certainly would appear that starters are having a pretty good year so far.  However, is it enough to qualify 2010 as the Year of the Pitcher?  I would submit "No," as my answer.

Consider this:

Josh Hamilton, OF for the Texas Rangers, is currently hitting .470 for the month of June.  He is in the midst of a 21-game hitting streak.  During which he has 41 hits, 9 HR, 28 RBI, 20 R.  His batting average has gone up 55 points, and he has a .495 on-base percentage and .850 slugging percentage for the month.

BOOM!  My one, small-sample-size example just blew you out of the water, mainstream media!  I just sunk your Battleship!!!