Viera Superlatives

Technically, when you read this post, the 2012 MLB Regular Season will have begun as the A's and Mariners are opening the year at 6am ET in Tokyo. Naturally, ESPN is showing their 3rd or 4th SportsCenter in a row and MLBN decided to show the game on Tape Delay. Don't they know that we are all ready for game action, and that we will get up early to watch the game or listen to it on the radio while at work???

Anyway, in my mind, Spring Training is over. The Nationals battles are all but decided with only a handful of players still in limbo (Michaels/Carroll, Stammen/Gorzelanny). I feel that it is time to give out some Awards on a varitey of baseball topics - some random and some legit. Enjoy.

MVP (Position Player) - Ryan Zimmerman. He has hit .424, gotten on base at a .500 clip, and he is slugging .788. That's just not ok. Those are MLB '12 The Show numbers right there.

MVP (Pitcher) - Henry Rodriguez. His control issues have shown to be a thing of the past as he has only walked 2 in 8 innings of work. Opponents are hitting a paltry .125 against him.

Truck Dealership Award - Jayson Werth. The dude hit his truck with a homer and "left a crater". How awesome is that.

Coolest Name Award - Austin Bibens-Dirkx. He has an "X" in his last name instead of an "S".

Best Newcomer Award - Eury Perez. He has never played above High-A yet he was still able to hit .333 in limited action while providing stellar CF defense.

"Staph" Award - Corey Brown. Brown had a 2011 September call-up to forget, getting a Staph Infection after just 3 ABs. He came into Spring showing the Nats Brass that he meant business, going 7 for 22 before being demoted (way too early) to AAA Syracuse.

Free Pass (Hitter) - Mark DeRosa. Talk about patience, DeRosa has 10 walks to just 1 strikeout so far - those 10 walks are 4 more than anyone else on the roster.

Free Pass (Pitcher) - Gio Gonzalez. He leads the Nationals pitching staff with 9 walks in just 15 innings of work. McCatty needs to settle him down just a bit more.

Worst Lineup - March 10 vs. The Tigers. The lineup for this road game went as such: Bernadina - 7. Lombardozzi - 4. Espinosa - 6. Tracy - 3. Flores - DH. Teahen - 5. Brown - 9. Solano - 2. Perez - 8.

Best Box Line (Hitter) - Roger Bernadina. Just three days ago (3/25)Roger Bernadina registered this gem of a line: 3 for 3. 1 HR. 1 R. 4 RBI. BB. Stellar.

Best Box Line (Pitcher) - Stephen Strasburg. On the same day that Bernadina was putting up the Best Box Line, Strasburg matched with his own top flight performance with this line: 5 IP. 5 H. 0 R. 1 BB. 5 K.

Worst Box Line (Pitcher) - Tom Gorzelanny. On Sunday March 4th, Tom Gorzelanny gave up 7 runs in just 1 inning of work. He gave up just 3 hits, so most of the damage came from his 4 walks. Ouch.

Worst Box Line (Hitter) - Bryce Harper. The day he got demoted (3/18) Bryce Harper put up the worst box line of the Spring - saved only by a late double. He went 1 for 5 with that double while registering a Golden Sombrero (4 strikeouts) in ugly fashion.

Ian "E6" Desmond Award - Ian Desmond. Shockingly, Desi leads the team with 4 errors so far in Grapefruit league action, garnering this prestigious award.

LVP (Hitter) - Andres Blanco. Simply put, when you have as many hits in 32 At-Bats (2) as Stephen Strasburg (a pitcher, mind you) does in 4 At-Bats (2) you get this award.

LVP (Pitcher) - Tom Gorzelanny. If you listened to the latest edition of Nats Talk On The Go, you heard a few Gorze stats. I shall repeat them. Everyone on the team has a better WHIP and ERA than Gorzelanny. EVERYONE. That includes Yunesky Maya. Yet, he will go north with the big club. *Shakes head*

LVP (General) - Training Staff. Another piss-poor appearance by the Nationals training staff. So far there have been way too many injuries that have been misdiagnosed as minor; LaRoche, Morse, and Solis. Several more nagging injuries that should have been prevented; Ankiel, Harper, Storen, Burnett.

Viera Panera Award (Best Sportswriting) - Tom Boswell. If you know me, I am not a huge Boswell fan, but his "investigation" on Jayson Werth's truck smashing bomb was just pure fun. I loved it.

Those are just a few of my awards, what are yours???