Results tagged ‘ David Price ’
My Baseball Game Schedule for the Rest of June
So far this season I’ve attended seven minor league baseball games–three Carolina Mudcats games, and four Durham Bulls games. In that time, I’ve been able to collect fourteen autographs, two game used bats and three game home run balls. While that’s far more than I was able to get all of last year, I’m hoping to continue adding to those totals, as I’m planning to attend as many games as possible from now until September, when the minor league baseball season ends.
The next game I’m going to is this Saturday’s Bulls game versus the Indianapolis Indians. I had originally been planning on trying to get an autograph from Pirates’ number one prospect, Gerrit Cole, at this game, but he’s set to make his major league debut later tonight, and therefore won’t be there. Thus, I’ve decided to try for autos from the Bulls players instead, that I haven’t been able to get so far this season. This includes stand outs such as Alex Colome and Jake Odorizzi, however, David Price is supposed to begin a rehab assignment with the Bulls sometime this weekend, so I’m hoping I can get him while I’m there.
If Price doesn’t happen to be at the game on Saturday, he’s nearly guaranteed to be there when I go to one of the three Bulls games against the Louisville Bats early next week. I’m going for the sole purpose of getting an autograph from Reds’ number one prospect, Billy Hamilton–I was going for Tony Cingrani as well, but he was just called back up to the Reds–but if I don’t get an autograph from David Price on Saturday, I may end up rethinking my plans. (Though that’s a hard decision to make–a guy who stole 155 bases last year, or last year’s Cy Young award winner.)
My first major league baseball game of the season, and my first since June 23, 2012, is coming on June 29th, up in Baltimore. The Orioles are set to take on the Yankees, and with it being my first time at Camden Yards, I’m really looking forward to the game, though it’s sure to be packed. I hate that Derek Jeter won’t be there, but I’m going to be trying for autos from the Yankees nonetheless, including guys like Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira, with my main targets being Ichiro Suzuki and Mariano Rivera. I’m not too confident on getting Suzuki, but with it being Rivera’s last season, and his overall fan-friendly attitude, I’m hoping I get lucky and pick up a signature from ‘Mo’.
So that’s basically it for the remainder of the month. If I don’t get an autograph from David Price on Saturday or next week’s game, I may end up adding an extra Bulls game in, so I can get Price to sign. But I’m staying optimistic that I won’t have to do that.
Towards the end of July, I’m going to be attending a Mariners-Twins game up at Safeco Field, in Seattle. This game is part of a month long road trip that will have a major impact on this blog. But I’ll wait to discuss that at some point next month….
R.A. Dickey and David Price On Pace for Rare Feat
Normally when you’re talking about a couple of former Cy Young award winners having a rare season, it’s a good thing, but in this case, it’s just the opposite. Both R.A. Dickey and David Price, who won the Cy Young last year, are off to poor starts this season, putting them with in line to join elite company.
Just five times since 1967, when the Cy Young award began to be given out to a pitcher in each league, have two first-time winners in the same season gone on to have poor seasons the next year–the award originated in 1956, but was given out to just one pitcher each season until 1967.
The select group of players who won their first Cy Young awards only to go on to have poor next seasons include: Jim Lonborg and Mike McCormick, in 1967; Hall of Famers, Steve Carlton and Gaylord Perry, in 1972; John Denny and LaMarr Hoyt, in 1983; Willie Hernandez and Rick Sutcliffe, in 1984; as well as Bob Welsh and Doug Drabek, in 1990.
While it’s looking like Price and Dickey may join them, it’s still far too early to count them out just yet. They’ve proven to be too good of pitchers. But it’s something worth looking at, nonetheless.
R.A. Dickey became the first knuckleballer to win the Cy Young award, last year, when he went 20-6, with a 2.73 ERA, however, so far this season he’s experiencing far less success, going 2-5, with a 5.06 ERA, through his first eight games pitched. The one thing that’s most noticeable for Dickey this season is that his knuckleball doesn’t have the late, drastic movement it had last year. Unless he finds a way to get back on track, I don’t see Dickey having a very good season, as the knuckleball doesn’t leave much room for error.
David Price became the first Rays pitcher to win the Cy Young award, in 2012, going 20-5, with a 2.56 ERA, but he’s been struggling this year, having gone 1-3, with a 4.78 ERA, over his first eight games of the season. Price had a decent start his last time out, but his command just doesn’t seem to be there this season, for one reason or another. I could see Price having a better overall season than Dickey, however, if he doesn’t figure things out, Price is likely to still have a disappointing 2013.
Whether or not R.A. Dickey and David Price can turn things around is something that only time will tell. If the first month of the season is any indication, it’s not looking all that promising, but these kind of things are unpredictable; part of what makes baseball such a great sport.
David Price and R.A. Dickey Win Cy Young Award
The 2012 Cy Young award candidates were some of the closest ranked in the history of the award. None more so than the American League portion of the award, where it came down to a mere 4-point difference between first and second place. It was truly THAT close.
While it was too close to call going in to Wednesday night’s Cy Young award announcement, in the end, it was David Price taking home the award for the American League, while R.A. Dickey received the award for the National League; as voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA).
This is both David Price’s and R.A. Dickey’s first career Cy Young award.
AMERICAN LEAGUE CY YOUNG: DAVID PRICE
Original Pick: Jered Weaver
Pick after finalists were revealed: Jered Weaver
Thoughts On David Price Winning
My original pick for the American League Cy Young award was Jered Weaver, and it remained the same after the finalists were revealed last week. With that said, I’m thrilled that David Price won the award.
As stated in a previous blog post, while I was still rooting for Weaver to win, I wouldn’t have been upset with any of the three candidates winning 
the award. They were all so close statistically that it was hard to pick a winner, because no one candidate really stood above the rest.
The voters seemed to agree, as David Price pulled out the win by a mere 4 points–the closest AL Cy Young vote since 1969.
David Price becomes the first pitcher in Rays’ franchise history to win the Cy Young award, and is certainly deserving of the honor.
Going 20-5 with 205 strikeouts in 211 innings pitched, to go along with a 2.56 ERA, Price had the best year of his career thus far, and is quickly making a case as one of the most dominant pitchers in all of Major League Baseball.
And if this year is any indication, Price (age 27) could be in the running for Cy Young for many years to come.
The BBWAA’s vote had Justin Verlander finishing second, with Jered Weaver coming in third.
NATIONAL LEAGUE CY YOUNG: R.A. DICKEY
Original Pick: Clayton Kershaw
Pick after finalists were revealed: Clayton Kershaw
Thoughts On R.A. Dickey Winning
I had Clayton Kershaw winning the award, but as with the American League portion, I would’ve been happy with any of the three candidates winning; so I’m happy for R.A. Dickey. He was extremely deserving, and it couldn’t have happened to a better guy.
R.A. Dickey was a completely different pitcher this season and really shocked a lot of the baseball world with the type of numbers he was able to post.
Going 20-6 with 230 strikeouts in 233.2 innings pitched, to go along with a 2.73 ERA, Dickey had the best year of his career, in 2012.
Unlike with the AL Cy Young–which had a 4-point difference between the 1st and 2nd place winners–the National League Cy Young voting wasn’t even close, as Dickey beat out Clayton Kershaw by a staggering 113 points; pulling in 27 of the 32 first place votes–finishing no lower than second on every voters’ ballot.
Dickey becomes the Mets’ first 20-game winner since 1990, and the first knuckleball pitcher to EVER win the award. Not bad for a 37-year old pitcher who was considered a bust by many just a few years ago. What a difference a few seasons can make.
The BBWAA’s vote had Clayton Kershaw finishing second, with Gio Gonzalez coming in third.
My Vote for American League Cy Young
This is the second in a series of four blog posts that I plan to type up between now and Friday; all of which will focus on who I feel should win the three major awards of Most Valuable Player (MVP), Cy Young and Rookie of the Year (ROY). (If you haven’t read my posts on who I think should win the AL MVP and NL MVP, go ahead and check those out now.)
When making a pick for American League Cy Young, I feel I can rely on stats (and not just personal opinion) more so than I did with Most Valuable Player. Unlike with MVP–where I didn’t let stats influence my decision–stats played a big role in my decision making for AL Cy Young; as the numbers don’t lie.
But don’t get the impression that the decision was an easy one. There are SO many good candidates for AL Cy Young that it made it impossible for me to choose just one player. So I ended up letting the stats do the deciding for me.
I took the American League starting pitchers with ERA’s below 3.00 (Price, Verlander and Weaver) and compared them from 20 different statistical angles. (I chose to use so many different stats to compare them because I felt that using Wins, ERA and strikeouts alone didn’t tell the whole story of how good a particular pitcher was.)
My method works as follows: The pitcher with the best numbers in a given category receives 1 point; with the 2nd and 3rd place pitcher receiving 2 and 3 points, respectively. (The occurence of a tie in a particular category results in the tied players receiving the same point amount.) In the end, the pitcher with the lowest combined total would be my pick for the Cy Young award.
It took me awhile to crunch all of the numbers, but once I finally finished, this was the result:
As stated earlier, the pitcher with the lowest combined total is declared (by me) as the winner. Which makes Jered Weaver the statistical choice (as well as my pick) for AL Cy Young.
I’m a bit shocked by the results, but not THAT shocked. (It’s not like Jered Weaver doesn’t deserve it.) Posting a record of 20-5, with a 2.81 ERA, Weaver is definitely worthy enough. He led the league in opponent batting average (.214), as well as WHIP (1.02), and in addition, pitched a no-hitter on May 2nd against the Twins.
Just icing on the cake for Jered Weaver–my pick for 2012 American League Cy Young.
Do you agree or disagree with me?
As always, feel free to leave a comment below.
Matt Huddleston
