More news when it becomes available.

Update – 1:30PM EST

According to MLB.com Game five is being delayed. This now confirms the earlier report I heard on the radio on my way home from work.

From the report,

Game Five is now tentatively scheduled to resume on Wednesday evening at 8:37 p.m. (ET), weather permitting.

Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig said: “While obviously we want to finish Game Five as soon as possible, the forecast for today does not allow for us to continue the game this evening. We are closely monitoring tomorrow’s forecast and will continue to monitor the weather on an hourly basis. We will advise fans as soon as we are able to make any final decisions with respect to tomorrow’s schedule.”

This news does not bode well for MLB officials who are already taking a beating from last nights suspended game. Last night, I questioned why MLB officials did not try to push up last nights game. However, with the news that Bud Selig and company were not expecting more then 1/10th of an inch of rain prior to 11 PM EST, there is reason to believe they truly felt as though the weather would not have a major impact on the outcome of the game.

What do you think? What should have MLB officials done last night while saving the integrity of what could have been a decisive final game in the series?

Put themselves in the shoes of a writer from the Baseball Writer’s Association of American and provide, for the Rookie of the Year, an ordered list of 3 nominee’s. Each first place vote would be worth 5 points, second worth 3, and third worth a single point.

Similarly, the player with the most points in both the National League and American League will be crowned this year’s BDD Cy Young winner. As was the case with the Rookie of the Year ballots, the writers were given the optional opportunity to explain their picks. Additionally, the ballots were to be the writers picks, not their prediction.

There isn’t a whole lot to report from the NL. Lincecum was clearly the best pitcher in the league and was voted accordingly. Santana made a late season push, and I wonder how the votes would have come out had Santana had better bullpen support and subsequently led his team to the playoffs.

The Brandon Webb pick does not thrill me, however, as you can see, the third place vote was pretty much a toss up. Pick your favorite pitcher or your favorite team.

Let’s now look into the writers rationale behind their individual picks:

Brian

Here’s hoping the BBWAA doesn’t get this one wrong and go the Brandon Webb route. If I had a vote, Webb might not even make the top 6 as I’d consider putting Cole Hamels, Ryan Dempster and CC Sabathia ahead of him. As for the choice of Lincecum, he was dominant, had an impressive record and led the NL in H/9, K/9, Strikeouts and ERA+. He also finished 2nd in ERA, wins and Win-Loss % and played on a team that managed to win just 72 games.

Bill

Johan Santana made a late push to put him neck-and-neck with Lincecum, but the Giants ace’s peripherals give him the nod.

The FIP is what really clinches the deal for Lincecum, but the K/9 is very impressive.

Rob

CC provided slightly less value to the Brewers than the next tier of great SP in the NL did for their teams (Dempster, Webb, Haren, Hamels, Sheets, Billingsley, Peavy), but doing it in half a season makes him a lot closer to the top two guys than to these. A simply astonishing partial season, and he’d be a very deserving winner if he gets it.

Mike

CC Sabathia was awesome, with or without periods in his name, but had only a half season in the NL. There’s precedent for a Cy anyway, but the NL competition was too good and too deep, making it hard even to narrow it down to the top three. Webb was great, except down the stretch when his team needed him. Haren was solid all year and, except for wins, equaled or bested Webb in virtually every peripheral, and was himself bested in several categories by Cole Hamels. But Hamels only had a 14-10 year, making him similar to Santana, who at 16-7 also didn’t seem to have the mound presence to rally his team behind him to a win. Tim Lincecum edges everyone out in ERA+, has a higher win % than any of these other guys, more wins than anyone but Webb, struck out more guys more often than anyone else, and did all this for one of the worst teams in baseball. That gives him the edge to me, but he’s among excellent competition.

Brandon

When I first sat down to make my picks, I wasn’t even going to look into the numbers. I figured I knew the story and didn’t need any convincing. While my opinion didn’t change after I eventually looked at the numbers, it became surprisingly close after looking at VORP, WPA, WS, PRC, and SNLVAR. Lincecum came away on top, with Santana finishing second, and fellow Canadian Ryan Dempster completing his full circle surprise season. I’m not shocked that Dempster isn’t getting more play in the upcoming days of Free Agency, but I am shocked that he isn’t getting much love from writers on the Cy Young ballot.

The American League is similar to the National League in that it is clearly a two horse race. Unlike the NL, however, I imagine the BBWAA will get this right as there truly is not a third party worthy of consideration. Here’s how things worked out:

If you were wondering, I was the guy who took the unanimous victory away from Cliff Lee, which I’ll get into later. Clearly my colleagues believe Lee had a better season. What is most interesting from the ballots is the belief that Lester is clearly the third best pitcher in the American League. The startling fact from that is because there isn’t an argument that could place Lester as the #1 or #2 guy.

Now let’s see how the writers explain their picks:

Brian

For me, there are only two real candidates — Lee and Halladay — which is why I threw in Moose for an honorary vote for his 20-win accomplishment. I don’t get hung up on wins and I understand the argument for Halladay over Lee but Lee was not a product of run support and genuine good luck like Brandon Webb in the National League, Lee was really, really good. Hopefully, K-Rod doesn’t get a lot of support here… a genuine product of his team.

Bill

I really wanted to give the AL Cy Young to Roy Halladay because he was my pre-season pick to win it, but Lee has slightly better numbers. Halladay’s pitched about 23 innings more (thanks in part to 5 more complete games) but overall has been slightly inferior to Lee. A 0.06 difference in WHIP isn’t that much to tip the scale in any way towards Halladay.

Rob

I really wanted to give a vote to John Danks… there’s no way Chicago makes the playoffs without his surprising emergence, and to put up such numbers in that bandbox was Tour de Force that few will appreciate and respect. But Lester was better, and Boston’s an awful park for pitchers, especially LHP. “Statheads” poo-poo the idea that K-Rod had a great season, but he pitched in almost half the games, had the highest “leverage” rating, per Baseball Prospectus.com, and faced a collection of batters which were much better than average. That his underlying stats weren’t as good as the elite relievers seems hard to hold to strongly against him, as he was obviously pitching tired frequently, and was “pitching to the situation” almost every time. I shifted him around in every spot between 2 and 5, but settled on #5, or 2nd Honorable Mention.

Mike

Halladay had a staggering 9 CGs and a WHIP of 1.05, though his 20-11 record isn’t as impressive as Lee’s 22-3, particularly as Lee did it with a poorer team. Lee tossed a not-too-shabby 4 CGs, more than doubling his career total (Halladay’s thrown 40 in his career), while leading the league in ERA+ with 175. Either one of these guys would be easy choices, were it not for one another guy named Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez, complicating issues horribly, by shattering the saves mark. But K-Rod has his own award, and saves is an overrated category for a reason: the Cy is for starters.

Brandon

For me, this wasn’t as difficult as it looked. Entering September, I was fairly convinced that Lee would be the winner. However, an article at Baseball Prospectus (free content) led me to thinking Halladay deserves more credit then he is receiving. The theory was that Halladay had faced substantially superior offensive clubs. The evidence is substantial and enough for me to take Halladay as the American League’s best pitcher.

There you have it, Baseball Digest Daily’s 2008 Cy Young winners are Tim Lincecum and Cliff Lee with Johan Santana and Roy Halladay being their leagues respective runner’s-up.

Tomorrow night I will have the National League MVP, and hopefully a Game 6 will provide post-reading entertainment for the American League MVP on Wednesday night.

We’d love to hear what you think of our votes and who you would have taken.

When asked to create an individuals ballot,  the writers were asked to put themselves in the shoes of a writer from the Baseball Writer’s Association of American and provide, for the Rookie of the Year, an ordered list of 3 nominee’s. Each first place vote would be worth 5 points, second worth 3, and third worth a single point. The player with the most points would then be crowned as Baseball Digest Daily’s Rookie of the Year.

The writers were reminded that this is a vote, not a prediction. As such, each writer could use measures which they felt supported their argument for their picks. Here’s how the voting shook out for the National League Rookie of the Year:

G. Soto takes the NL Rookie of the Year in a landslide, and deservedly so. Despite a fairly strong 2008 rookie class, one which we will be hearing things for years to come, Soto was clearly at the top of this class.

Not a lot of deviation from writer to writer here as there was only 5 players receiving votes.

The American League had a little more excitement towards it, with a three horse race for 3rd place. Here’s how we voted for the AL Rookie of the Year:

Definitely an interesting poll. The American League posted twice as many single vote getters then the National League received. This tells me that not only was the 2008 AL rookie class extraordinarily deep, providing a lot of options, but there was also some disagreement between what player provided more and had a better rookie season.

One of the most surprising votes has to be Brian’s vote of Jacoby Ellsbury. Not because Ellsbury is undeserving of a ROY vote, but that Brian had Ellsbury as his 2nd place pick when nobody else had Ellsbury even finishing 3rd.

In addition to the writers providing votes, some took advantage of the optional opportunity to explain their votes. Let’s check out what each writer had to say. Beginning with the National League:

Brian Joseph

For the longest time, I was more sold on Jurrjens than Soto but young Jair had a rough second half and Soto kept up his impressive rookie year. Soto was a force to be reckoned with behind the dish for the Cubbies and while Joey Votto turned in an impressive offensive performance also, Soto had the harder defensive job of catching. Votto at first base makes his numbers a little less spectacular when compared to his peers.

Bill Baer

This one’s not particularly difficult. The only real competition Soto has is Joey Votto but Soto is a catcher and Votto is a first baseman. However, the difference between Soto’s OPS and the average at his position is almost five times higher than Votto’s.

Rob McQuown

Votto was helped by his ballpark, dropping his value behind the two good SP seasons. Kuroda and Jurrjens seemed almost identical, but the excellent .299 OBP and .359 SLG allowed by Kuroda push him into #2.

Mike Street

Votto put up solid numbers, slightly higher than Soto, but Soto did it while catching one of the best starting rotations this year. Jurrjens is to be commended for putting up 13-10, 3.68/1.37 ERA/WHIP with the rotten Bravos behind him, but he didn’t turn out to be a difference-maker.

Brandon Heikoop

This was a one horse race from the get-go. Soto mashed early on in the year, and while his numbers faded, he was still extraordinarily superior to the rest of this year’s rookie class. Votto began to catch Soto, even to my surprise passing Jurrjens. However, a late season push was not enough for Votto.

…and now the American League:

Brian Joseph

Even though I put Longoria first, I think at times all three of those guys held the top spot for me. All three helped catapult their teams to the playoffs and had big rookie seasons. Longoria’s OPS+ of 130 and ability to play the hot corner were the overriding factors for me. Armando Galarraga deserves an honorable mention, too.

Bill Baer

This is not a contrarian pick, believe it or not. Mike Aviles has been slightly more valuable than Evan Longoria. They’ve both close offensively: Aviles’ 116 OPS+ and 35.0 VORP to Longoria’s 130 OPS+ and 39.3 VORP, but Aviles has been the best defensive shortstop at a more demanding defensive position. Additionally, Aviles has a greater differential between his OPS and the average OPS at his position (POS OPS in the following chart), .140 to .106.

Rob McQuown

Very hard to sort out the guys behind Longo. Aviles had the best year, compared to position, but his defense was bad enough that he had to be taken out for defense. Span’s a great defender, and Chris Davis and Alexei Ramirez (also knocked for bad D) get honorable mention.

Mike Street

Longoria did it offensively and defensively, and he’s one of the reasons TAM has gone as far as it has. Ramirez is also good, but trails Longoria in every category (even triples!), though he did it while playing in the middle of the diamond. Rodriguez was the standout AL rookie pitcher, but he really can’t compare.

Brandon Heikoop

When I began putting together my ballot, I thought it was Longoria #1 and then everyone else. However, when I began looking at the numbers, Aviles started coming closer and closer to Longoria. The numbers were so close, that I simply could not pick one over the other, instead, I made a t-chart and in a fairly basic methodology, decided that among 5 categories there would be a winner chosen. Longoria was ahead of Aviles in WS, RC/27, and MLV while Aviles lead in VORP and WPA. Needless to say, despite my colleagues picks, this was a much closer competition. Hat tip to Bill for taking Aviles as the winner and making me look even further into the numbers.

You have seen our picks, you have seen some of our rationale, so what do you think? Do you agree with who we choose for the American and National League awards? Who would your top 3 be?

Tomorrow I will be posting the ballots for the American and National League CY Young award. Monday will feature the National League MVP with the American League MVP being announced on Tuesday.