It's Too Pathetic

There is a symphony called the "Pathetic Symphony". The title is in French. It is by Tchaikowsky. That is completely random, and though I have a transcribed-for-piano edition of the theme and finale I haven't tried playing it, but it doesn't look very pathetic.

Perhaps it's just Tchaikowsky's little joke or something.

Anyway, it's going to be pathetic and what not but here goes: The TYIB award noms are out and surprise surprise I don't really agree with lots of the nominations. But what do I know? I'm just a bored, procrastinating kid with a big mouth.

BUT since the actual award thingies (Cy Young, MVP, blah blah blah) are coming out in a few weeks (soon after the WS, right?) I will just dole out my own to who I feel is deserving. Which may not be very fair because there's no vote or anything, but you can't say the sportswriters are fair, either.

So...the Cici Pathetically Patented awards (complete with celebratory blingees) are:

AL CPP Best Pitching Performance: King Felix! When you are pitching against the scary Angels lineup  fairly often compared to most other starters, you're bound to have a gruesome ERA...right? Wrong. King Felix, while pitching for the woeful Mariners, managed to rack up 19 wins (tied for first in the majors) and have a 2.49 ERA. For one of the youngest pitchers out there, that's amazing, and considering he's top 5 in the league in the top 4 pitching categories? Not bad. Bow to the ruler, guys.

NL CPP Best Pitching Performance: Chris Carpenter had an outstanding season. 48 earned runs? That's ridiculous. That's scary. That's run-for-your-life evil. That's as wicked as Yankee Fans with their cackles of doom as they descend upon you because their team did better than yours. We all know that feeling, don't we? Unless I have several unknown Yankee fan readers who have chosen not to show themselves...

AL CPP Most Valuable: Adam Lind. This year was not a good one for the Jays: At one point, their entire starting rotation from opening day was on the DL, and only one or two of them made it back. They had to give in and release their overpaid, cringe-worthy closer BJ Ryan, and Travis Snider, the Next Big Thing, turned out to not be ready for the majors yet. Roy Halladay wanted to be traded, Alex Rios and Scott Rolen were traded, and starting in May the Jays kinda imploded. But Adam Lind was a beacon in that horrible season. Halladay's 100-pitch shutout was cool, Hill broke out of his shell, but behind those guys there was the very important DH/LF Adam Lind. 35 homers, 93 runs, and 114 RBI on a mediocre team. Considering he faced AL East pitching quite a lot? Not too shabby, Adam. Not at all.

NL CPP Most Valuable: You gotta hand it to Adam Wainwright. 233 innings without an error. 19 wins. Decent hitting, too. Say what you will about his teammates, but without Wainwright? The Cards go nowhere. Carpenter, Pujols, Holliday, and Molina don't go very far. Their division is always up for grabs, so it's pretty tough. It's also really crowded. But all those wins Wainwright gave the team are hard to find. It's a good year to play baseball if your name is Adam.

AL CPP Rookie: Do I know much about the AL? No. Will I try to make an educated guess? Sure. That's what this is all about. So I'll say Rick Porcello. I keep forgetting about him. I mean, I'm hearing about him but I forget he's a rookie. I think he's like Verlander's pal or something, the two of them have been anchoring Detroit for ages, even though that's totally not true. But he fits in with the big picture so well...(I apologize to Mr. Porcello and Mr. Verlander if they don't get along or something. Didn't mean to link the two of you together in any way. Sorry.)

NL CPP Rookie: I do know about the NL. Blah, blah, blah, JA Happ. I don't care about JA Happ. He's going to win the Sportswriters' ROY, so why should I comply to their "Let's choose a lucky guy on a good team" thing? Why not vote for a guy who I was so surprised was not nominated for a TYIB? Gerardo Parra, who's kinda like the NL Porcello. He blends right in with the team. His first at bat he slams a homer, and he just keeps on rolling. Decent bat, power on occasion, but can this guy play the outfield better than anyone else I saw all year? I think so. Granted, I did not see him live a lot, but I saw him on TV several times and you can't disguise great plays. Gerardo puts effort into everything and if he doesn't make the play he makes a quick recovery and doesn't let extra damage get done. That's cool, that's levelheaded, he's a pro not just another rookie. He doesn't give up even if his team loses (which they did quite a bit), he just keeps playing. Well, everyone does that, you say? Did you see the Mets in September? They were clearly going through the motions, all of them. Thole, Sullivan, Redding, Murphy, Wright, Castillo...And Gerardo Parra's team finished with a record that was exactly the same as that team.

Honorable Mentions:
AL-Aaron Hill, Mark Teixeira, Bobby Abreu, Zack Greinke, Ricky Romero, Mariano Rivera, any pitcher who hit a homer this year in his 1 or 2 games at bat.
NL-Dan Haren, Tommy Hanson, Justin Upton, Matt Cain, Orlando Hudson, Jayson Werth, Omir Santos, Ryan Zimmerman, Nick Johnson.

Well, it's not whether you win, lose, catch the ball, get hurt, or whatever: it's the way you play the game. Correct?