Altuve Named Sporting News Player of the Year

way to go Altuve! But I stopped reading sporting news long before newspapers died.

 

Huh, according to wikipedia Mike Trout has never won that award. It's funny that he's unquestionably the best position player of the era and doesn't get nearly as many individual awards as he deserves.

 

Niice! Good on him.

 

Good god I love Bagwell the ballplayer....

 

Luhnow's comment "we always have interest in keeping our franchise players here as long as possible" bothers me. It's so mechanical and it implies that eventually the players will leave. Just say "we love Jose, he's so important to our franchise, we'll do everything we can to make him an Astro for life." You're still not committing to anything or compromising your bargaining position by saying that.

 

By the way, Jose Cruz batting stance was referenced on Dan Patrick Show yesterday as a classic.

 

Is this kind of like Harden winning the Players' MVP?

 

And JJ Watt being voted #1 of players top 100?

It appears the players of the sports know the best player is in Houston for each sport, now we just have to get the media on board.

 

I actually disagree with that. I think the players in the sport are one of the most biased people to judge a value of another team's players' performance over the whole season because of small sample bias. If I'm Corey Brewer, and Rudy Gay tears me up the three times he plays against me, I'm going to overrate him, even if he had a very mediocre season overall.

 

Never thought about it like that. I can see that happening too.

 

Why not? People are bound to be more biased from things they've actually seen. It's human nature.

 

You don't think pro athletes watch more video of their opponents than , say, you do?

 

I'm mixed on the idea. Luhnow can come from the position that he's looking out for the team and preserving space for others or strong offseason moves. In reality, owners have their different interests...

Otoh, displaying and honoring loyalty is in short supply, and it could boost team spirit and an enduring culture.

 

No issues with it at all. Remember, Luhnow came from the Cardinals who passed on extending Pujols that 10 year deal. It will take perfect storm for truly great players to stay with a single team their entire careers now. It isn't even as common as we think going back the past 30 years.

While your not committing anything in real life, contract deals now are all won/lost in social media, perception, etc. If there is a quote that you pay anything, Boras will put that out there and use it to squeeze everything he can.

 

Actually, in Adam Grant's book The Originals, he details a lot of work that shows that peers are the best at judging an individual's work. For example, movie directors are better at predicting whether another director's movie will be received well by critics. Pixar famously uses this process to improve its movies.