Good morning Friday. OK, Ms. Upton didn’t say “Mess.”
- The big news of the week is still the profane Twitter rant of Kate Upton over her fiancé, Justin Verlander, not winning the Cy Young Award. In any case, Ken Rosenthal comes (somewhat) to Upton’s defense, saying that the BBWAA needs to do a better job in awards voting. Rosenthal also makes the point that the problems of the newspaper industry has had a negative effect on the BBWAA and voting.
- Verlander also took time to defend Upton against a writer who told her to “pipe down.”
- Cy Young winner Rick Porcello says he’s not concerned about Upton’s comments.
- One of the voters who left Verlander off the ballot said he “agonized” over his vote.
- Ken Davidoff argues that the Upton controversy is the kind of attention baseball could use more of.
- Matt Snyder didn’t have an AL Cy Young vote, he voted for the NL Cy Young Award. He explains the thought process that he went through to make this difficult choice. (He voted for Kyle Hendricks, by the way.)
- Turning quickly to the MVP winners, Sam Miller looks at the long history of the criteria used over the years to define the word “valuable” and wonders if Mike Trout’s win means a change in the definition of the award.
- Jorge L. Ortiz just applauds the MVP wins by Trout and the Cubs Kris Bryant. He thinks that the acknowledgement of these young stars is a good sign for the game.
- Craig Calcaterra finally asks if we should really care much about who wins these end-of-the-season awards.
- Turning to the hot stove, things are getting really warm in Houston as the Astros made several moves. The biggest one is that they acquired catcher Brian McCann from the Yankees in trade for two minor league pitching prospects.
- Jon Tayler believes this deal is a good one for both teams.
- But the Astros weren’t done. They signed free agent outfielder Josh Reddick to a four-year, $52 million deal.
- They also signed free agent pitcher Charlie Morton to a two-year deal.
- Jeff Sullivan thinks that these moves by the Astros don’t make them an elite team in 2017 because they were already going to be an elite team in 2017.
- There was a report that the Dodgers and Tigers were discussing a deal that would send second baseman Ian Kinsler to Los Angeles.
- However, Ken Rosenthal reports that any such deal is complicated by Kinsler’s no-trade clause that he is unwilling to waive without a contract extension.
- Dayn Perry notes that the lack of a new collective bargaining agreement will keep the big-ticket free agents from signing in November.
- Will Leitch adds that handing out huge free agent contracts usually does not work out well for the team signing them.
- Jon Heyman reports that free agent closer Kenley Jansen is the Marlins top target this winter. Jansen played for Marlins manager Don Mattingly in Los Angeles, of course.
- Heyman also reports that the Yankees are looking at signing a big free agent DH such as Edwin Encarnacion. They are also interested in bringing back Aroldis Chapman.
- Ken Rosenthal reports that the new CBA is likely to include a roster expansion to 26 players in exchange for limits on September call-ups. Oh goody! Another relief pitcher!
- No one thinks that there will be a work stoppage over the CBA negotiations, but if one does happen, Nathaniel Grow explains how it would play out.
- Bill Baer has an intriguing thinkpiece on rights of pitchers to refuse to pitch when asked to preserve their own health.
- Anthony Castrovince has a look at the top players available in trade this winter.
- Grant Brisbee points out that the White Sox are not required to trade pitcher Chris Sale and probably shouldn’t unless they get blown away by an offer.
- Former White Sox pitcher John Danks wants to pitch again in 2017.
- The Athletics have a new managing partner. Lew Wolff, who had been running the team, is stepping down and selling his stake. Majority owner John Fisher will now take over running the team. Fisher says he’s committed to getting a new stadium built in Oakland.
- The 911 call that led to the Halloween arrest of Mets closer Jeurys Familia has been released.
- MLB is also investigating a reported sexual assault at the Rangers academy in the Dominican Republic.
- Roey Hadar takes a look at the crazy names minor league teams have been adopting this winter.
- Vin Scully will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- And finally, Cub Tracks had this yesterday, but in case you missed it, do you want to re-watch game 7 of the World Series with the Channel 4 News Team from the movie “Anchorman”? Of course you do. Funny, I would have thought they’d be Padres fans.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.