Quick Hits

The revolution was televised. As recently as five years ago, the baseball writers could no more have found their way to bestow the Cy Young on a .500 pitcher than to explain the general theory of relativity. Not only did they correctly identify Felix Hernandez as the best pitcher in the AL this year, but they did so by a country mile over a perfectly plausible second-best candidate.

David Price went 16-9, 2.72 with 28 quality starts in 31 tries. He was money down the stretch, going 4-0 1.67, propelling the Rays ahead of the Yankees to the #1 seed in the playoffs. For the win-obsessed, CC Sabathia went 21-7. But the writers eschewed Sabathia completely and gave King Felix three-quarters of their votes.

Perhaps David Price's best pitch was in Hernandez's behalf. "I feel like they got it right,'' he said on a conference call. "I feel Felix deserved it. He didn't have the wins, but that's the part you have the least control over.''  That's impressive insight from an athlete.

Roy Halladay, clearly the best pitcher in the NL and probably in baseball, is more typical of jockdom. " I think, ultimately, you look at how guys are able to win games. Sometimes the run support isn’t there, but you sometimes just find ways to win games. I think the guys that [sic] are winning and helping their teams deserve a strong look, regardless of how good Felix’s numbers are.” 

It's the job of the people who study the game to exercise a deeper understanding of it than those whose job is to play it. For the second year in a row, the baseball writers have demonstrated this ability.

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Met fans, rejoice, and stop worrying about who your manager is going to be. Frankly, it doesn't much matter as long as he gets along with the players.

Sandy Alderson as GM and Paul DePodesta as AGM are anti-Minayas. They will give the team positive mass, energy and momentum. Alderson schooled Billy Beane in Oakland before moving to an inner orbit in MLB's executive suites. Described by some as "old school" because he's 63, Alderson will bring new ideas to Queens.

Evidence of that was his first hire, DePo, whom the Dodgers would regret firing as GM a few years back if they had enough sense to avoid messy divorces. The new management team's first order of business, after deciding who'll implement their plan on the field, will be to surround Wright and Reyes with some sustainable talent and shed the Bay-like contracts that darken the Mets' future.

They'll need a couple of years to clean the stables at Citi, but once they do, they'll get a squad of thoroughbreds back on the field and give orange and blue fans something to believe in again.

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Speaking of field generals, I see that the voters have tabbed their managers of the year for 2010. Were Ron Gardenhire and Bud Black the best managers in baseball this year? I don't know. But I do know this: not a single one of the writers who voted for this award knows either.

Admit it, BBWAA, there is no manager of the year award. Gardenhire and Black were voted managers of the teams that most outperformed expectation. Whether the manager has any, much less significant impact on that result is dubious at best.

The unacknowledged truth is that managers are measured by results for which there is little evidence that they affect. The strategic, in-game decision-making is so proscribed and rote that any reasonably knowledgeable baseball fan could handle the duties. Team leadership is another story, but most of that goes on behind closed doors, out of the view of you, me and baseball journalists.

If we were really identifying the "best" manager, wouldn't it stand to reason that the same people would win repeatedly? Or is managing really such a fleeting skill that this year's hero is next year's goat? Only one manager has repeated in either league since the award was established 27 years ago -- Bobby Cox in '04-'05 -- and that was because the '04 team was gutted and expectations for the '05 Braves were lower than a pregnant ant's belly.

Each year I vote for MVP, Cy Young and ROY in the Internet Baseball Awards, but I never bother to cast a ballot for manager of the year. Where I can gather facts and analyze them appropriately, I can cast an informed vote. I don't feel comfortable pulling the lever without being informed. Evidently, this is not a deterrent for a lot of people.

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