Alfonso Soriano is the NL MVP! Kinda! And Other Bullets

The Wife is at a conference this weekend (starting yesterday), so I’m on solo daddy duty with The Little Girl. Translation? I’m getting in a lot of ‘Sesame Street’ time.

  • Alfonso Soriano is the NL MVP! … if you exclude the 19 guys in front of him. Soriano finished tied for 20th in the NL MVP vote, which is swell. Soriano got three votes (in various positons) from Doug Padilla, Gordon Wittenmyer, and Hal McCoy (Dayton/Cincinnati area). Soriano had a great season, and he deserved some votes down the line. Good for you, Alf.
  • (As an aside, ESPNChicago’s Doug Padilla’s votes were notable in two respects: he was the only non-Milwaukee writer to vote Ryan Braun first, and he was the only writer to not vote Buster Posey first or second (he had Posey third behind Braun and Andrew McCutchen). Gordon Wittenmyer’s vote was also not without idiosyncrasies – he had Gio Gonzalez fifth, which was one of only two votes Gonzalez received at any slot, 1 through 10. None of this is a criticism of either vote – I just think it’s interesting to see how the Chicago dudes voted.)
  • I referenced it in the Dioner Navarro signing post, and didn’t give it a ton of discussion because I’m sure it’s water way under the bridge, here’s a little background on the issue(s) the Cubs’ new back-up catcher and Matt Garza had back in 2008 with the Rays. Here’s an MLB.com article from the day the issue(s) happened. The short version is that the two had a disagreement on the mound in a game, and that disagreement spilled over into the dugout. Garza has since credited it as something of a turning point in his career – it’s easy to forget that Garza used to have a reputation as a Zambrano-esque hothead. Now he’s thought of as an excitable, supportive, quality teammate.
  • Dropped in the comments by BN’er King Jeff, here’s a great look at MLB’s revenue sharing system. It’s everything you wanted to know, and then some.
  • BN’er Mike drops a really interesting comparison over at the Message Board: if Torii Hunter is worth two years at $13 million per, how much is Alfonso Soriano (who is under contract for two years and $18 million per) worth? How close are the two in value? The answer might surprise you.
  • Miguel Socolovich heads to Japan after his brief time with the Cubs.
  • A profile on Logan Watkins, who looks up to – and is compared to – Darwin Barney, the second baseman ahead of him on the depth chart, so to speak.
  • The MLBullets at BCB talk about that AL MVP vote (and why it was plainly, obviously wrong (ok, here’s the simple version: Trout’s and Cabrera’s offensive numbers are virtually indistinguishable (Trout’s rate stats are slightly better, Cabrera’s counting stats are slightly better), and Trout is vastly more valuable on the bases and in the field. So, there you go. Is it really that much of a stretch to say that Trout’s the guy? I didn’t even need to use the word “WAR”).
  • Don’t forget: you’ve still got time to try and win one of those Egraphs. The contest ends tonight – don’t miss out.
  • Anthony Rizzo’s walk-a-thon to raise money for smacking down cancer will be December 9. Details here.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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