The Slanch Report

I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed this, the Baseball Writers Association of America, the people who get to vote on awards like MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and the Hall of Fame, the people who are supposed to be the most knowledgeable and informed about the game are apparently retarded. That’s the only conclusion I can come to. While looking over the results for yesterday’s NL Rookie of the Year something struck my attention. The order of the final ballot went this way:

1. Geovany Soto
2. Joey Votto
3. Jair Jurrgens
4. Edinson Volquez

Now 1-3 I have zero compunctions with, it is that fourth place guy that bothers me. You see the rules for eligibility for the RoY award state that a player who has pitched 50 innings in the big leagues previously is no longer considered a rookie and thus, ineligible for the award. So let’s take a trip back in time courtesy of Baseball Reference shall we.

The year was 2005 and Edinson Volquez was still a Texas Ranger, in a late season call-up he pitched in 12 2/3 innings, compiling an 0-4 record and an ERA of 14.21, so OK, he wasn’t ready for the big time yet. In 2006 he received another late season call-up, this time pitching 33 1/3 innings en route to a 1-6 record with an ERA of 7.29. Hey at least he was improving…2007 came and Volquez once more got his taste of the majors with yet another late season call-up. This time he pitched 34 innings with an ERA of 4.50 and a record of 2-1. So let’s do a little math here, stick with me, I know it’s early.

• 12 2/3
• 33 1/3
• 34

Hmm…that equals 80 innings! What was that eligibility requirement? Oh yeah, 50 innings. So again, let me get the ol’ calculator out…Oh, wow, that’s a 30 inning difference! In fact, before he ever threw a pitch for the Cincinnati Reds, Volquez was NOT a rookie. He pitched the entire season as NOT a rookie. He went to the All-Star game, NOT AS A ROOKIE.

Clearly though, the people who are supposed to be responsible to the history of the game, the group of people who don’t think Cal Ripken is a unanimous Hall of Famer, the people who thought Luis Apricio WAS a Hall of Famer, they definitely know what’s going on.

What an embarrassment. Even MLB.com was ashamed, in their writeup of the awards they made sure to mention, “Volquez’s presence on that list is definitely unique: No longer a rookie, the pitcher was mistakenly placed on the ballot and received three votes for second, thus there was an obligation to include him in the final results.” Way to go BBWAA, I mean sure, you don’t like to let new writers in because you think they don’t go to stadiums enough, or maybe just because they use stats that are actual representational of a player’s performance as opposed to luck based information such as RBIs and Wins. But I can guarantee you that people like Rob Neyer and Keith Law would NEVER EVER EVER EVER include votes for a player WHO WASN’T FUCKING ELIGIBLE!!!!!!!!

Now to be fair, MLB did accidentally place Volquez on the ballot. But you’d think that maybe, just possibly, the people voting on these awards might do SOME FUCKING RESEARCH into them before they vote. Or is that craziness. You know how long it took me to find those inning totals? All of 10 seconds. I mean, it’s not like the writers need to be compiling box scores and going through them one by one, there is a dedicated website, FILLED WITH EVERY STAT YOU COULD WANT, for FREE. Of course, that’s assuming that the ancient BBWAA dinosaurs are capable of using a computer.

The BBWAA, that vanguard of the game, those dedicated servants who pay such close attention apparently didn’t notice ALL SEASON when Volquez wasn’t a rookie, a simple look in the team’s media guides could have told them that. But I guess that would assume the writers are actually paying attention, which clearly, they were and are not. I guess it’s too difficult to pay attention to what is actually going on in baseball when you’re too busy shoveling food from the press box buffet into your chubby gullets.

Again. What an embarrassment. I hope the writers who voted for Volquez are immediately kicked out of the BBWAA and their votes given to brain dead chimps, at least they’ll care about ERA+.

All I know is that I love baseball, care passionately about it, and if I were given the chance to be a voter for the end of season awards that’s a responsibility I would take seriously. Clearly the members of the BBWAA feel differently. Also, it’s time that their ballots are no longer made secret, if people are going to continually vote retardly, they should be forced to do so openly, so that public ridicule and outcry and remove them from this position of authority. I’m disgusted.