NFL Score Review || MLB Awards Predictions || James Harden Story || BIG TEN SUSPENDS JIM HARBAUGH ||
Edition #20
Intro
Welcome back to the all-new edition of Sports Square. Probably a corny opening. I should’ve thought that to myself, but instead, I want to compare this corny opening, to the corny week of football we saw. No team-by-team review today though…. REMEMBER IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO APPEAR ON THE PODCAST, CHAT IT IN OR RESPOND TO THE EMAIL! Let’s get it!
NFL
Simple as some x’s and checks.
Colts vs Patriots: Winner: ✅ Score?: ❌
Browns vs Ravens: Winner: ❌ Score?: ❌
Packers vs Steelers: Winner: ✅ Score?: ❌
49ers vs Jaguars: Winner: ✅ Score?: ❌
Saints vs Vikings: Winner: ✅ Score?: ❌
Texans vs Bengals: Winner: ❌ Score?: ❌
Titans vs Buccaneers: Winner: ❌ Score?: ❌
Lions vs Chargers: Winner: ✅ Score?: ❌
Falcons vs Cardinals: Winner: ❌ Score?: ❌
Giants vs Cowboys: Winner: ✅ Score?: ❌
Commanders vs Seahawks: Winner: ✅ Score?: ❌
Jets vs Raiders: Winner: ✅ Score?:❌
Broncos vs Bills: Winner: ❌ Score?: ❌
8-5 winner record. Score record 0-13, again….
MLB Awards Predictions and Who’s ROY
Five years after they played together in a showcase of the best high school baseball players in America, Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll and Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson won the Rookie of the Year Award on Monday, only the fifth time both leagues' winners have been unanimous.
Because both started the season in the major leagues and were ranked among the top 100 prospects in baseball, their teams will receive an additional first-round pick in 2024 as part of the Prospect Promotion Incentive that the players' union pushed for in collective-bargaining negotiations to discourage service-time manipulation.
Carroll, 23, is expected to finish high in National League Most Valuable Player voting that will be revealed Thursday after he hit .285/.362/.506 with 25 home runs and 54 stolen bases, the second most in the major leagues behind NL MVP favorite Ronald Acuña Jr.
The 22-year-old Henderson, who helped lead the Orioles to a 101-61 season and American League East title, rode a combination of power and smooth defense to the award and became the Orioles' first Rookie of the Year since Gregg Olson in 1989.
Cleveland Guardians right-hander Tanner Bibee finished second - and, in doing so, received a full year of service time despite debuting in late April – and Boston Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas was third. New York Mets right-hander Kodai Senga took second in the NL, with Los Angeles Dodgers James Outman locking down third.
Anyway, time for the actual prediction part. Let’s get it!
Manager of the Year Prediction
Dave Roberts was snubbed. Again. Just like Nick Sirriani was in football last year. It was crazy and it sucked. (Especially me being an Eagles fan…)
AL
Finalists:
Bruce Bochy, Texas Rangers
Kevin Cash, Tampa Bay Rays
Brandon Hyde, Baltimore Orioles
This isn’t easy, especially since now I’m predicting after the World Series. But if it was before, obviously I’d go Brandon Hyde. Hyde is the favorite after the Orioles exceeded expectations for a second straight season, following up 2022's surprising 83-win season with 101 wins, the first time the Orioles cracked the century mark since 1980. Many expected the Orioles to regress from 2022; instead, they improved by 18 wins, including an impressive 30-16 record in one-run games. In his fifth season with the Orioles, Hyde has guided the rebuild from 108 losses in 2019 and 110 in 2021 to an AL East championship.
NL
Finalists:
Craig Counsell, Milwaukee Brewers
Skip Schumaker, Miami Marlins
Brian Snitker, Atlanta Braves
I’m going with Craig Counsell. Counsell, like Cash, is a fixture in the conversation about the game's top skippers. However, while Cash is a two-time Manager of the Year winner, Counsell has never won, finishing second in the voting in 2018, 2019, and 2021. His standout statistic this season is Milwaukee's 29-18 record in one-run contests, continuing Counsell's annual dominance in a category many analysts see as a baseline 50-50 proposition. It's this consistent excellence that made Counsell such a sought-after figure in a crowded managerial market, and he was ultimately poached by the Cubs to become the game's highest-paid skipper. Conspicuous by his absence among the finalists: Cincinnati's David Bell, whose Reds beat their preseason over/under consensus by 16.5 wins.
CY Young
AL:
Gerrit Cole, New York Yankees
Kevin Gausman, Toronto Blue Jays
Sonny Gray, Minnesota Twins
Cole is one of the best pitchers to never win a Cy Young Award. Among pitchers who have never won, he ranks second in career Cy Young award shares at 1.90, just behind Adam Wainwright's 1.98. What's an award share? If you are the unanimous winner, that's one award share. If you get half the possible maximum points, that's a half share. Cole has received Cy Young votes in six different seasons, including runner-up finishes with the Astros in 2019 (to Justin Verlander) and in 2021 with the Yankees (to Robbie Ray).
He'll be getting the trophy this year, and the only question is whether it will be a unanimous selection. It should be, as there isn't a strong argument for anyone else. Cole went 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA, leading the AL in ERA, innings pitched, batting average allowed, OBP allowed and OPS while ranking second to Gausman in strikeouts. He was the runaway leader in bWAR, 7.4 to 5.3 for Gray. It was a tight race until mid-August, and maybe Ohtani would have given Cole a run if he hadn't been injured, but Cole had a terrific stretch drive, going 5-0 with a 1.29 ERA over his final seven starts, lowering his ERA from 3.03 to 2.63. The Yankees missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016, but it certainly wasn't Cole's fault.
NL:
Zac Gallen, Arizona Diamondbacks
Blake Snell, San Diego Padres
Logan Webb, San Francisco Giants
There is precious little to separate the three nominees, nor would there be if you added the Phillies' Zack Wheeler, the Cubs' Justin Steele, and the Braves' Spencer Strider to the mix. When we see how the voters landed among the nominees, we will find out how much they weighed Snell's dominance (MLB-best 2.25 ERA), Webb's durability (MLB-best 216 innings), and Gallen's balance of results (210 innings, 3.47 ERA, 17 wins).
Advanced value metrics are supposed to help us sort these things out, but they don't agree on who did what in the National League. In terms of bWAR, Snell outpaced Webb for the league lead (6.0 to 5.5). Meanwhile, in fWAR, Wheeler (5.9) and Strider (5.5) outperformed all three nominees. Sorting it all out, Snell feels like the favorite, but you could pick any of the six pitchers mentioned here and make a credible argument for why they should win.
MVP
AL:
Finalists:
• Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels
• Corey Seager, Texas Rangers
• Marcus Semien, Texas Rangers
What to know: We have written similar things about Ohtani for years now, but we've never seen anyone do what he did in 2023. At the plate, he led the AL with 44 homers, a .412 on-base percentage, and a .654 slugging percentage. On the mound, he went 10-5 with 167 strikeouts and a 3.14 ERA. He earned 10.0 WAR at Baseball-Reference.com, 2.6 more than any other player in the AL, and 9.0 at Fangraphs, 2.7 more than anyone else. There is just no good argument for another player.
Still, even as Ohtani is a shoo-in for his second MVP trophy, the early end to his season and the Angels' disappointing 73-89 record make this possibly anticlimactic to some voters. He threw his last pitch on Aug. 23 and made his last trip to the plate on Sept. 3. Not only did this quash Ohtani's quest to post the best season in history, but it might have swayed some voters to turn to Seager, who missed a chunk of regular-season time as well. That might be especially true if the playoffs were considered, as Seager once again transmogrified into Playoff Seager when the games mattered most.
NL:
Ronald Acuna Jr., Atlanta Braves
Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers
Freddie Freeman, Los Angeles Dodgers
Everyone thinks that Acuña is going to win this. Like a runaway train. But no one knows how close they actually are, stats-wise. In fWAR, they ended up tied at 8.3. In bWAR, Betts holds the smallest of edges at 8.3 to 8.2. Most seasons, that would lead to a hotly contested MVP debate, but Acuna had the flashier numbers: 41 home runs and 73 steals, becoming not just the fifth member of the 40/40 club, but blowing past that group to create the 40/70 club.
Besides leading the majors in stolen bases, Acuna led the NL in runs, hits, OBP, OPS, and total bases. Despite those gaudy numbers and despite Acuna being the favorite for most of the season, Betts had arguably pulled ahead entering the final month, after hitting .455 with 11 home runs and 30 RBIs in August. Indeed, via FanGraphs, Betts led in WAR, 7.7 to 6.7, at the end of August. Betts, however, struggled in September, hitting .244 with one home run, while Acuna finished with a burst, hitting .340 with 11 home runs. He should join Freeman (2020), Chipper Jones (1999), and Dale Murphy (1982-83) as Braves players to win MVP honors since the franchise moved to Atlanta.
This one is very close, though. Personally, I would kind of want Betts to win…
James Harden Story
This story isn’t going to be like a backstory or anything. It’s going to be normal. Why is James Harden not exactly “fitting well” with the Clippers?
This whole story is written by ESPN.
The LA Clippers have not won a game since acquiring James Harden -- and coach Ty Lue is clear about what he wants to see from his new star.
"He's being too polite," Lue said.
In Harden's first home game with his new team before his hometown crowd, the Clippers dropped their fifth straight with a 105-101 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.
With Harden in the lineup, the Clippers are 0-4 and still very much trying to figure things out with their new Big Four of Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Russell Westbrook.
George led the Clippers with 26 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists. But Leonard scored just 14 points and was held scoreless in the fourth quarter, while Harden missed 6 of 7 3-pointers and scored 11 points. Westbrook had 12 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists.
Lue said he told Harden and the team on Saturday at practice that Harden has "free rein" to play his style against Memphis.
"I think he's doing too much to try to fit in," Lue said. "So that's on me. Just yesterday we had a talk amongst the team and just he has to be James Harden. He led the league in assists the last two or three years, and making plays and what he does in the pick-and-roll, he's great. So, we have to allow him to be himself.
"I think the whole group hearing that and understanding that -- listen, we're going to play through James, he's going to run pick-and-rolls, he's going to make plays. They understood that. And so just letting the group hear that in front of James. So now he feels more comfortable, but he doesn't want to step on anybody's toes, and I understand that just to have respect for PG, Kawhi, and Russ, because they've been here. But we need James to be James, and so that's on me to make sure I make him be James."
Having not had a training camp or a preseason with the Clippers, Harden has not been able to find a rhythm yet. In four games, Harden is averaging 13.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists.
The Clippers (3-6) fell behind by 15 in the third quarter but came back and took a 95-93 lead with 3:09 left. They made their comeback largely with George, Westbrook, Norman Powell (20 points), Terance Mann and Leonard. Harden, who was a minus-28 for the game, checked back in with the Clippers trailing by 3 with 1:55 remaining and drilled a corner 3 to tie the game.
But Leonard, who didn't score in the fourth, missed on a contested drive. Harden misfired on a corner 3 with 36.9 seconds remaining that could have tied the game again, and then Leonard missed an 11-foot fadeaway with 33.1 seconds left as Memphis (2-8) was able to seal the game from the line.
"Just figuring each other out," Leonard said. "There's no magic to it. Just trying to play, figure each other out."
Harden said he understands what Lue wants from him.
"It's to be more aggressive," Harden said. "Not just shooting, but just attacking and getting into paint and making the right basketball plays."
It doesn't get any easier for Harden and the Clippers, who travel to Denver to face the defending champs and Nikola Jokic on Tuesday night.
"We all have been supportive and we absolutely want James to be himself," George said. "I think when you make a trade like that, it is for James to come over and provide the same service he's done his whole career. We know how good he is, we know how effective he is, and he brings a different dynamic with his ability to catch and shoot, play off the bounce, pick-and-roll, playmaking.
"We want James to be himself. James is used to having the ball and orchestrating offense and breaking offense down every possession. I'm sure it is tough when it's not that every possession, and so he's working through that. We're all working through something, and we're just trying to figure out how to be ourselves when those opportunities present themselves."
I found this interesting and weird. By the way, Philadelphia is 8-0 without him and that means, yes, they’ve won 8 straight.
BIG TEN SUSPENDS JIM HARBAUGH
On Friday, Jim Harbaugh got suspended by the Big Ten for the remaining 3 games of the CFB season. The terms are he is allowed to be with the team for practicing, but not on the sideline for games.
The Big Ten suspended Harbaugh this past Friday as a punishment against the football program for violating the league's sportsmanship policy. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said in a letter Friday he had gathered enough information from the NCAA and others in the conference to prove that a former member of Michigan's staff compromised the integrity of this year's games by scouting other teams' signals in advance.
The Big Ten announced its decision to suspend Harbaugh while the team was en route to Pennsylvania on Friday afternoon. Harbaugh said he learned about the decision when someone showed him a social media post with the news.
The Wolverines play at Maryland on Saturday before finishing their regular season with a home game against rival and No. 1-ranked Ohio State. Friday's hearing will help determine whether Harbaugh can attend either of those games.
Conclusion
Well, that’s the newsletter. We’re still on for the podcast thingy so please please please ask a few questions so that it appears right here. Thank you so much again for reading this newsletter and I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any feedback or questions, email me at thebest616161@gmail.com or sportssquare@substack.com. You can also chat about it! Thank you!