Joe Cowley is an idiot

How was Pujols jobbed? His team did exactly the same when he was hurt as it did when he played. Without Howard, the Phillies don't win 75 games. So why don't you go "shut the fuck up" instead?

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving.

 

When was Howard hurt, Waldmyn-breath?

 

First of all, ask anybody who saw the Twins every day who was more valuable. And 32 fewer RBI is a lot. Yes, part of that was injuries, but if you miss time because of an injury, that should hurt your MVP standing.

Morneau's OBP was 40 points higher and slugging wasn't even close (.559 to .490). And don't even bother with the steals. Hunter had 12. Not exactly an impact total. Not even good by his standards.

 

I will say this. Cowley sounded like a jackass on Dan Patrick's show today, especially trying to defend his choice to vote A.J. Pierzynski 10th and leave Joe Mauer off his ballot.

Patrick told Cowley, "You can't possibly say that with a straight face."

He's right. Cowley's arguments were so bad they were funny, going on about what a bunch of headcases the White Sox pitchers were this year. Never mind that Mauer was working with the Boof Bonser's of the world while Pierzynski had pretty much the same guys that carried the White Sox to the 2005 World Series.

 

What else did Cowley say? I just caught the end of it. Something about the media "slurping" New York, right?

 

How many times was Hunter the one who scored on a Morneau hit? And thanks for ignoring the Gold Glove defense.

 

A few years ago, an Ohio writer left Mike Schmidt off his HOF ballot the first year he was eligible because "he struck out too much."
Ichiro didn't make somebody's ballot for Rookie of the Year because he didn't think he was really a rookie.
Norm Cash hit .361 with 41 HR, 132 RBIs and a .487 OBP and finished fourth in the AL MVP voting in 1961. OK, Maris was No. 1 and Mantle was No. 2. But he was behind Jim Gentile (insert Michael Richards joke here).

 

Columbo, I'm discovering that you're not very bright. I never said Howard was hurt. What I said, since your reading comprehension skills need some work, is that when PUJOLS was hurt, the Cardinals won at the same rate that they won when he played.

Had Howard been hurt, the Phillies would have been dead. He wasn't, so they stayed in the playoff race.

And leave your fantasies about Suzyn Waldman to yourself. We don't need to know about them.

 

Talking of gold glove defense, I've found that some players earn them, and others get them because of reputation.

I'm not sure Hunter was as great this year as he has been in centerfield as he was in years past. But since he's Torii Hunter, he gets an auto-punch from many voters.

 

I made it pretty clear that I don't think Morneau deserved it, and I think he's 4th on his team, but there's no way he's behind Torri Hunter. That's not even close. If you want to argue that Hunter got really hot when the Twins needed him to, and started hitting HRs when Morneau stopped, you can say all of that but over the course of the season, that's not even close.

 

I didn't ignore it. I just didn't argue it. There's no question Hunter is a better defensive player than Morneau. But on a team that struggled at times to score runs, I think being the top offensive weapon was more important.

And given that Morneau won the award and I don't think Hunter even got his name on a ballot, I'm pretty sure a lot of people agree with me that Morneau was much more valuable than Hunter this year.

 

I only heard the tail end of it, too. I heard Patrick or Olberman refer to the slurping content, basically blowing off Cowley's opinions as New York backlash.