This one is voted on by the players. Nice job, Jose! http://www.chron.com/sports/astros/...amed-the-Sporting-News-Player-of-10417103.php http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/new...-player-of-the-year/elxkok2ixjzi1cpxhjl9ua1s6
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.
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.
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.
Even if the question is "who is the best basketball player in the NBA?" Sorry, but I don't think that example holds water if the question is presented as "who is the best".
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.
So, in your example, you actually think that Brewer would say Rudy Gay was the best player in the NBA - over Lebron, Curry, Harden (his own teammate) and a number of others simply because he got torched a few times? Really? Really?
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.