Opinion

Zack Greinke's win of the 2009 Cy Young Award should be considered one of the best accomplishments in recent baseball history.

The Kansas City Royals weren't a bad team in 2009, they were awful. Greinke's dominance on a 97-loss team speaks to his greatness.

The Royals are in the very competitive but winnable AL Central. Any great team needs an "ace" of the pitching staff to always depend on, but the Royals have almost an entire roster full of holes to fill in order to compete with Minnesota, Detroit, and Chicago.

Perhaps there is hope for the writers who vote for the Major League Baseball awards, after all. Then again, it's always one step forward, two steps back with these guys.

One might hope that the preponderance of advanced statistical evidence might educate voters for awards such as Cy Young, MVP, ROY and the Gold Glove.

After all, as younger and (hopefully) more enlightened writers obtain voting rights, the subjective manner of awarding players should improve.

You know the old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” Well, that’s how I felt about the LA Angels' lineup the last few years.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that they are such perennial contenders, and the victory over the Boston Red Sox in the 2009 playoffs was fantastic. But the way they played against the New York Yankees brought back bitter memories of disappointment, and quite frankly, I’m tired of seeing the Angels look undermanned in the playoffs year after year.

“Miguel Tejada signs with the Minnesota Twins.”

Reading that headline wouldn’t elicit the excitement it would have five years ago, but it’s still an intriguing proposition.

Five years ago, Tejada was one of baseball’s best players and had recently signed a massive six-year, $72 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles.

Kansas City Royals' ace pitcher Zack Greinke was deservedly awarded the 2009 American League Cy Young Award Tuesday afternoon.

Greinke, 26, who received 25 first-place votes and three seconds for 134 points, went 16-8 and he posted a 2.16 ERA for the putrid Royals (65-97).

When the Brewers traded JJ Hardy for Carlos Gomez, they sealed their fate as to how they will acquire starting pitching this winter.

Other than John Lackey, the free agent class for pitchers is rather underwhelming, but Brewers' GM Doug Melvin is determined to find two starters on the market.

I contemplated preparing something in advance for the occasion of Zack Greinke winning the Cy Young, but I was not entirely convinced that the BBWAA would make the right decision.  After the debacle that was the Bartolo Colon 2005 Cy Young Award and the late season statements of Patrick Reusse, a CY voter, I made sure to temper my expectations. 

Consider my faith in the BBWAA as capable award voters restored. 

This caps a season that we Royals fans are not entirely used to.  In fact, most fans have not been privy to a season like Greinke's 2009 campaign. 

It is most definitely not summer anymore. 

In fact, this weather is much like a lazy fly ball to St. Louis’ collective applebag, if our applebags were saturated with 14 inches of rain.

The two most pertinent issues to the Cardinals offseason have been publicly tabled by the team: Matt Holliday will not be negotiated with until he speaks with other teams first, and Mark McGwire will get his day of media faux-indignation and soapbox bloviating sometime before the Winter Warm-Up (supposedly.)

Let’s be honest; Moneyball hasn’t quite worked out over the last few years.

The Oakland Athletics had gone 457-353 under Billy Beane’s leadership when Moneyball was published after the 2002 season. They continued their success for the next four years, going 368-280, but have gone just 226-260 since 2007.

The World Series has wrapped up, and it has gotten chilly in the Midwest.

While some of the Tigers are home in the tropics or enjoying 18 holes in Florida, The Hammer Toss will keep you warm with the hot stove.   

Is it just me, or is the Tigers' front office being remarkably short-sighted about who will be playing second base in 2010?