BS ALERT! Clayton Kershaw has as much a chance as I do of winning the Cy Young
Baseball is at it insulting our intelligence as human beings all over again! As recent reports have stated, the Phillies have no "finalists" for the major awards about to be given out. That means the Phillies fans already know that they will not have a Cy Young, Manager of the Year, or MVP award in Philadelphia. But this whole "finalist" thing is a total crock of spit that just insults our intelligence.
Here are the "finalists" paraded out by MLB.com:
AL Rookie of the Year
Final candidates: Yoenis Cespedes, Yu Darvish, Mike TroutNL Rookie of the Year
Final candidates: Todd Frazier, Bryce Harper, Wade MileyAL Manager of the Year
Final candidates: Bob Melvin, Buck Showalter, Robin VenturaNL Manager of the Year
Final candidates: Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy, Davey JohnsonAL Cy Young Award
Final candidates: David Price, Justin Verlander, Jered WeaverNL Cy Young Award
Final candidates: R.A. Dickey, Gio Gonzalez, Clayton KershawAL Most Valuable Player
Final candidates: Adrian Beltre, Miguel Cabrera, Robinson Cano, Josh Hamilton, Mike TroutNL Most Valuable Player
Final candidates: Ryan Braun, Chase Headley, Andrew McCutchen, Yadier Molina, Buster Posey
This is an insult to our intelligence for a few reasons.
First, so all this is really telling us is that one of the players they mentioned will win the award. Well guess what – I could have told you that there are five really good players that did really well this year. What did you tell us that we don't know? Any idiot can name the top five players in the league and be sorta right, but only one or two really matter.
Second, there are people on these lists that have no chance whatsoever. R.A. Dickey and Gio Gonzalez each won 20 games and had really low ERAs. Kershaw won 14 games. Yeah yeah yeah – they love to tell us that wins don't matter, but this is America and people vote that way. The gap between the Dickey and Gonzalez and Kershaw are just too large for him to be part of the discussion. But what do we get out of it? The L.A. Times gets to publish a story that hardly says anything. Kershaw was never part of this discussion until inserted as a "finalist".
Third, there are no "finalists". It's just one stupid vote. Technically everyone in a finalist, because the writers pick from everybody. This isn't a situation where they vote, get the top three, and then vote again from the finalists. All they do is vote once, period. The votes are long cast. Nothing will change between announcing the finalists and somebody actually winning something.
This is a poor attempt to keep baseball in the news and people like me interested. Instead it just makes me annoyed that they're shoving this down my throat.
