Okay, so I fell off the wagon and haven't posted any Baby W diaries in a few weeks. House remodeling plus travel plus insane energy baby = no time.

Anyway, without further ado, here are Baby W's comments on the pressing questions of the day.

(huh? what is this? and what are these pictures?)

Who is the A's MVP so far?

Baby W says that either Swisher, Haren or Frank Thomas would be reasonable choices, but she picks Swisher. No one else is close.

Name            WXC     Plays
----            ---     -----
Nick_Swisher    +2.503  525
Dan_Haren*      +2.395  760
Frank_Thomas    +2.032  413
J_Duchscherer*  +1.358  181
Barry_Zito*     +1.330  758
Kiko_Calero*    +1.317  212
Milton_Bradley  +1.127  265
Jay_Payton      +0.961  441
Joe_Kennedy*    +0.846  78  
Eric_Chavez     +0.674  455
Chad_Gaudin*    +0.617  206
Dan_Johnson     +0.502  275
Joe_Blanton*    +0.375  687
Mark_Kotsay     +0.352  478
Huston_Street*  +0.322  248
Sco_Sauerbeck*  +0.242  50  
Bobby_Kielty    +0.186  234
Rich_Harden*    +0.124  143
Jay_Witasick*   +0.001  60  
Jimenez         +0.000  2  
Santi_Casilla*  -0.020  11  
Shane_Komine*   -0.053  44  
Steve_Karsay*   -0.059  46  
Ron_Flores*     -0.061  21  
Doug_Clark      -0.072  7  
Esteb_Loaiza**  -0.086  6  
Barry_Zito**    -0.110  4  
Joe_Blanton**   -0.111  3  
Dan_Haren**     -0.166  7  
Brad_Halsey*    -0.191  374
Jason_Windsor*  -0.255  39  
Randy_Keisler*  -0.269  42  
Kirk_Saarloos*  -0.319  453
Ron_J. Flores*  -0.361  61  
Matt_Roney*     -0.390  19  
Mike_Rouse      -0.395  25  
Marco_Scutaro   -0.464  278
Bobby_Crosby    -0.696  402
Antonio_Perez   -0.853  97  
Esteban_Loaiza* -1.115  471
Mark_Ellis      -1.122  366
Adam_Melhuse    -1.303  119
Jason_Kendall   -1.778  468

pitcher pitching = *
pitcher hitting = **

Who Is The A's Least Valuable Player?

Least valuable players: Kendall beats out Ellis and Loaiza in a runaway race to the bottom. Yes, even counting his recent surge. While all three were equally terrible at the end of July, Loaiza and Ellis have had outstanding Augusts to drop out of the race, while Kendall only contributed .500 baseball.

Who are the MVPs?

Baby W says that it's Pujols and Ortiz and it's really really not close. And amazingly enough she really does agree it's a battle between Ortiz and Jeter in the AL. Remember, Baby W doesn't measure defense or grit.

    STL Albert_Pujols   7.38    482
    BOS David_Ortiz     7.12    555
    PHI Ryan_Howard     5.23    530
    NYY Derek_Jeter     5.23    565
    CHW Jermaine_Dye    4.34    467
    HOU Lance_Berkman   4.33    492
    NYY Jason_Giambi    4.18    483
    MIN Justin_Morneau  4.16    498
    FLA Mig_M. Cabrera  3.91    524
    BOS Manny_Ramirez   3.89    529
    CLE Travis_Hafner   3.81    521
    PHI Chase_Utley     3.74    574
    NYM David_Wright    3.72    538
    ARI Brandon_Webb*   3.63    737
    ANA Vladi_Guerrero  3.58    541
    KC  Mark_Teahen     3.49    385
    NYM Carlos_Beltran  3.49    501
    MIN Joe_Nathan*     3.33    201
    SF  Barry_Bonds     3.29    383
    BOS Jona_Papelbon*  3.18    245
    BOS Kevin_Youkilis  3.16    561
    CIN Adam_Dunn       3.02    543
    TOR B.J. Ryan*      3.00    236
    ATL Andruw_Jones    2.94    511
    STL Chr_Carpenter*  2.92    686
    CIN Ed_Encarnacion  2.84    332
    ANA Fra_Rodriguez*  2.83    220
    CHW Jim_Thome       2.82    495
    SF  Jason_Schmidt*  2.81    726
    MIN Franc_Liriano*  2.69    478
    CHC Carl_Zambrano*  2.69    766
    CLE Grady_Sizemore  2.67    598
    ATL Marcus_Giles    2.65    514
    TOR Vernon_Wells    2.64    535
    TOR Roy_Halladay*   2.62    745
    COL Todd_Helton     2.61    488
    NYM Duaner_Sanchez* 2.58    232
    NYY Johnny_Damon    2.54    544
    OAK Nick_Swisher    2.50    525

By the way, Edwin Encarnacion has taken over the position of Highest Ranked Player I've Never Heard Of.  Amazingly, he isn't a setup guy, he's a genuine position player, a young 3B for the Reds, and someone who follows the NL can probably say why Baby W loves him so much.

Ethier or Bradley and Perez?

Baby W declares this... a draw. Amazing.

OAK Milton_Bradley  +1.13   265
LA  Andre_Ethier    +0.22   344
OAK Antonio_Perez   -0.85   97

And most of the difference between Bradley and Either comes from a spectacular event around AN Day. I wonder what that could have been...

Jeter or A-Rod?

In every previous year, Baby W has considered A-Rod to be way way way better than Jeter. So she spits on the idea that A-Rod is generally a choker. And I think any reasonable look at the numbers shows that A-Rod has historically not at all been a choker compared to Jeter. Quite the contrary.  That said, much to my shock, this year, Baby W thinks A-Rod has been a dud, approximately contributing .500 baseball to the Yanks, while Jeter has been a star. Just for kicks, I include Ortiz and Damon for comparison.

How Are The Big Three Doing?

How are Huddy and Mulder compared to their replacements?  Huddy and Cupcakes are contributing similarly, and while Haren has become a top-notch pitcher, Mulder fell off a cliff around the middle of May and hasn't recovered.

The Ex-A's We Like

Byrnes, Miggy have had pretty unamazing years. Ramon was killing the ball until he collapsed around mid-July.  And I don't know what kind of Wheaties Dye started eating, but he is having a shockingly great year.

The Ex-A's We Curse

And we wrap with a look at Redman, Rhodes, the Incredible Foulke and Jason G. Gotta say, I still have negative feelings about this gang, though I forgave Jason G sometime around the depths of last year. The first three have done nothing to make us miss them, but Jason G has been, with Jeter, one of the best players in baseball. Let's hope it's due to great exercise and talent and not HGH.

That's all for now. I have a dream of putting Baby W on the web so I don't have to make these reports myself. It might happen, but the school year is starting...

Bonus Blurry Picture of Hopey and Maya at AN Day