FanPost

DLD 11.25.09 - Thanksgiving eve

I'll start with baseball..

Wonderfulclarence2_medium

via www.gonemovies.com

Lew Wolff is optimistic about Fremont San Jose Oakland's direction

Wolff was asked if, in hindsight, he has considered the public-relations backlash to the strategy.

"It isn't like, if we had a winning team, we would have had double the attendance," Wolff said. "If you trace it back for a long time, we're in a market that's difficult to tap. We're close to the Giants, who have a beautiful ballpark. I don't think the fact that we traded some guys "... When you look back at what we sent out, I think the balance sheet is in our favor, thanks to Billy and his guys."

Wolff's optimism about next season stems from some promising young players — particularly on the pitching staff.

Albert Pujols is the unanimous NL MVP selection

"If he continues to stay healthy, I don't see any reason why he can't win another one," said Musial, 89, who called Pujols to congratulate him.

Musial, who said that the best players he ever competed against were Willie Mays and Ted Williams, suggested Pujols might well rank with anybody he has seen.

Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt gota a 10th place MVP vote from SJ Merc writer Andrew Baggerly

But hey, this is my "prerogative" vote. If it were a three- or even five-slot ballot, I wouldn’t dream of making a "statement" with my final selection. But this is a ballot that goes 10-deep, we all knew Pujols would win in a landslide, and there’s really no impact anyone can make with their final selection. So I think it’s completely harmless to give a tip of the cap to the relief pitcher who had the lowest ERA in the league while appearing almost exclusively in highly leveraged situations. Affeldt was an MVP in the bullpen, all right. He didn’t allow a run from May 8 to July 24 — posting 27 scoreless innings over 28 games.

Joe Posnanski on AL MVP Joe Mauer

• He became the third catcher to lead the American League in batting average -- after Mauer & Mauer.

• He became the first catcher to lead the American League in on-base percentage since 1933.

• He became the first catcher to lead the American League in slugging percentage since... well, I believe since ever.

Mauer also won a Gold Glove -- whatever that's worth -- and for whatever this is worth he also hit .371/.521/.527 as the Twins went 17-4 down the stretch to steal a playoff spot in the lousy American League Central. It seemed to me that he was probably as obvious an MVP candidate as I could ever remember. And I worried that he would not win again.


There's football tomorrow... adjust rosters today. Although if you have multiple Lions or Raiders on your roster... you're probably in trouble.

Lions vs. Packers

Cowboys vs. Raiders

Giants vs. Broncos

Dump away!