Crazy Barry Stats:
- 4 year averages from 2001: .349 BA, .559 OBP, .809 Slugging, 1.368 OPS
- 232 Walks in 2004, 120 of them being intentional
- 500 SB’s and 500 HR’s
- From 1990 to 2004 he finished first in OPS 9 times. He finished outside the Top 3 just once.

Give me a reason to think otherwise.

Phillies Starters(Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Worley) are 53 – 20 for the year. If you were to look at National League pitchers who have thrown 95+ innings; they have 4 pitchers in the top 8. The ERA for the group is 2.55, which encompasses 670 innings of work! That is incredible, not to mention 634 strikeouts.

Halladay and Lee have 12 CG’s combined. Thats more than any other team in the NL. If you take the month of August, They are 11-2. Everyone knows the month Cliff is having: 5-0 0.45 ERA, but the rest of the staff has been just as good.

In the “semi-live ball era”, this has to be one of the best statistical pitching staffs ever, if not the best.

Apparently Oregon’s style & swag has rubbed off on the major conferences/colleges.

http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story/_/id/6909853/uni-watch-delivers-every-stitch-change-college-football-uniforms

As an east coast resident my entire life and growing up a baseball fan i have to be honest and say those players out west just never got to me. A player with 630 career homeruns, almost 2800 hits, over 1800 rbis, 10 gold gloves and 1 MVP award should easily be considered the best player I ever saw.

Well, Ken Griffey Jr Isn’t the best player I ever saw. He has 10 GG and hes not even the best player at his position that I ever saw.

I know Jr was pretty much everyones favorite player growing up. I understand he was great. He’s top 20 all time. I get all that. But to me he was probably the 4th best position player in my lifetime, 2nd best CF I ever saw and this is all because he played in Seattle. Now I know the world is different with BBTN and MLB tonight and everything. I don’t want to take anything away from Jr, I just want it to be said that I don’t look at him as most did. Say what you want about injuries and everything. You can say that about hundreds of players. I wish i had a different outlook on him as a player, but sadly I don’t.

Now over the past 10 years I’ve become much more aware of what goes on out west. Mainly because I am older and because of the advancement of BBTN and MLB. I am a huge Ichiro fan now. Ichiro plays in Seattle. I think he is as talented a baseball player that there has ever been. My eyes are open now to the Pacific Southwest and I’m seeing one of the great ones in the 21st century.

I leave this open for discussion.

People get infuriated by me mentioning Shane Victorino and his career best year as a possible contender. Hes Top 7 in Batting Average, Slugging and OPS. In fact, hes 7th in everyone of those categories. The 14 steals and 14 triples round out a great season in terms of Victorino, but just a respectable season in terms of MVP voting.

I love Matt Kemp, and he is having a monster year. He is a legitimate Triple Crown threat, not to mention his ability to steal bases. If the Dodgers were even within 5 Games of the division lead it would help his chances,they aren’t. They stink. He has to be super impressive down the stretch to win MVP.

Justin Upton aka Matty J’s mancrush. He cant win because of that. Upton is a stellar talent and will have more chances to win the award, but not this year.

Prince Fielder – Animal, big time animal. His arms easily win most behemoth things on the planet. He is hitting close to .300 with good power numbers and really good RBI production. Good case for MVP, but hes not even the best player on his team. Therefore, no go.

My main man Ryan Braun, Mr. MVP. You have to love the alliteration there. Hits for average, fields his position well, crushes 30 HR’s on the reg and has stolen 28 bases this year….booyah 30/30 guy. His stance may be a bit queer, but he rakes. The Brewers are out in front by 10 games, and playing ridiculously well.

Ryan Braun in a semi close vote, take it to the bank.