Weaver loses

[Mark Pattison]

First he lost the duel, and then he lost his cool -- the fool.   Weaver's behavior in Sunday's game probably cost him the AL Cy Young Award. It was not enough that he would have lost to Verlander, but BBWAA members (who tend to focus on stuff like this) will remember Weaver yelling at Ordonez, Weaver heaving the ball over Avila's head, and Weaver's six-game suspension, which makes him unavailable to his team, which is closer to Texas in the AL West standings right now than Cleveland is to Detroit. I doubt they would want a Cy Young winner who presented himself in this manner.   Maybe it runs in the family. Remember Mike Sweeney's charge to the mound in 2001 when Jeff Weaver and him were jawing back and forth? What was it that Jeff said anyway that caused Sweeney, by all accounts an upstanding Catholic lad, to flip out? And, in 2004, when Jeff was with the Dodgers, he fielded a Michael Tucker bunt in a Dodgers-Giants game and tagged him on the baseline with a ball-included glove slap to Tucker's face.   What did Verlander lose Sunday? Just his jewel. Writers may also consider it bush league, as Verlander did, that Erick Aybar bunted to try and break up Justin's no-hitter.   Mark Pattison

[Steve Bielawski]

> Maybe it runs in the family. Remember Mike Sweeney's charge > to the mound in 2001 when Jeff Weaver and him were jawing > back and forth? What was it that Jeff said anyway that caused > Sweeney, by all accounts an upstanding Catholic lad, to flip out?

"Get back in there [the batter's box], you pussy."

> And, in 2004, when Jeff was with the Dodgers, he fielded > a Michael Tucker bunt in a Dodgers-Giants game > and tagged him on the baseline with a ball-included > glove slap to Tucker's face

Oddly, though, Jeff Weaver's problem was that he was too laid-back.  Many people think that that is why Jeff never took it to the next level.  People still talk about the promise thagt he showed while he was with the Tigers, and how he never delivered on that promise.  People say that he was too complacent with where he was and what he was doing, and that he never felt a huge need to improve himself.  That's rather the opposite of the sort of behaviour which brother Jered showed on Sunday.  Jered was not complacent enough with where he was at and what he was doing.    --- On Wed, 8/3/11, Mark Pattison <pattis...@yahoo.com> wrote:

[lor...@aol.com]

Oddly, though, Jeff Weaver's problem was that he was too laid-back.  Many people think that that is why Jeff never took it to the next level.  People still talk about the promise thagt he showed while he was with the Tigers, and how he never delivered on that promise.  People say that he was too complacent with where he was and what he was doing, and that he never felt a huge need to improve himself. 

Jeff's laid back attitude might have something to do with the marijuana Robert Fick was mailing to him.

[Tanvir Shaikh]

On Wed, 3 Aug 2011, lor...@aol.com wrote:
> Jeff's laid back attitude might have something to do with the marijuana
> Robert Fick was mailing to him.

"I like the FedEx guy, because he's a drug dealer, and he don't even know it.
And he's always on time."
--Mitch Hedberg

[John Watkins]

Weaver has fallen off the top of the Cy Young Predictor list rankings:

2011 Cy Young Predictor - AL
RK	PLAYER	TEAM	CYP	G	GS	IP	ER	K	SV	SHO	W-L	ERA	VB
1	Justin Verlander	DET	156.0	24	24	181.0	45	178	0	2	15-5	2.24	4
2	CC Sabathia	NYY	154.4	24	24	176.2	50	162	0	1	16-5	2.55	6
3	Jered Weaver	LAA	151.8	23	23	167.2	35	142	0	2	14-5	1.88	6
4	Dan Haren	LAA	110.6	24	23	161.2	52	131	0	2	11-6	2.89	6
5	Josh Beckett	BOS	106.7	21	21	139.0	34	122	0	1	9-4	2.20	6
6	Jon Lester	BOS	100.5	20	20	127.2	45	124	0	0	11-4	3.17	6
7	Mariano Rivera	NYY	97.8	43	0	41.1	8	37	28	0	1-1	1.74	6
8	Jonathan Papelbon	BOS	97.2	45	0	44.2	17	61	24	0	3-0	3.43	6
9	Jose Valverde	DET	96.3	49	0	46.1	15	42	29	0	2-3	2.91	4
10	C.J. Wilson	TEX	95.5	23	23	154.2	58	137	0	0	10-5	3.38	6

Glossary

• RK: Rank
• G: Games
• GS: Games started

• IP: Innings pitched
• ER: Earned runs
• K: Strikeouts

• SV: Saves
• SHO: Shutouts
• W-L: Wins-Losses

• ERA: Earned run average

• CYP: In The Neyer/James Guide To Pitchers -- co-authored by Bill James and ESPN.com's Rob Neyer presents a method, based on past results, to predict Cy Young balloting. This page provides an in-season snapshot of the Cy Young "race," as figured by the following formula: Cy Young Points (CYP) = ((5*IP/9)-ER) + (SO/12) + (SV*2.5) + Shutouts + ((W*6)-(L*2)) + VB (see below).
• VB: Victory Bonus is a 12-point bonus awarded for leading your team to the division championship (pro-rated based on the current standings)
• Cy Young Winner: Denoted in bold

---

Date: Wed, 3 Aug 2011 07:53:50 -0700
From: pattis...@yahoo.com

Subject: Weaver loses
To: detroit...@googlegroups.com

[John Black]

Not that it's particularly significant of anything, but can anybody tell me (us?) just why Papelbon ranks ahead of Valverde? Most of the numbers that I understand favor Valverde, but I'll admit that I have no idea what CYP or VB mean.

 

JtE

[Paul Meloche]

The key to the abbreviations is at the bottom of the original post.

 

It appears that Papelbon's 3-0 record compared to Valverde's 2-3, plus Papelbin's much higher strikeout total is probably what puts him ahead. I'm assuming that Verlander's high strikeout totals compared to Weaver are what makes him more of a faovrite at this point as well, Weaver's meltdown on Sunday nonwithstanding.

 

Paul M.

[John Black]

----- Original Message -----

From: Mark Pattison

To: detroit...@googlegroups.com

While it may be considered "unfair" to try and break up a no-no with a bunt (but I'll admit that I don't believe I've ever heard that before), it might also serve to "remind" Jason that fielding/throwing is still an important part of a pitcher's repertoire (in case he has forgotten some events of ~5 years ago).   JtE   Mark Pattison