Your morning 'Eh' Factor headlines

Because we haven't done headlines in a while, why not?

Chris Pronger left the game in Philadelphia's 5-3 over Montreal last night. It is being called a 'lower-body injury' for now, because Pronger ran off with the medical reports.

Joey Votto wins NL MVP with 31 of 32 first-place votes

The Etobicoke, ON native was given all but one first-place vote on the ballot as the Most Valuable Player for the National League Monday afternoon. Albert Pujols from the rival St. Louis Cardinals, once seen as the dominant first baseman in Major League Baseball for years upon years to come, finished 31 votes short.

Cincinnati vs. Philadelphia - Who ya got?

The MLB playoffs start today, which are always compelling to watch, but this season, there's a little more riding on the line than cop cars in the championship city.

His worship Roy Halladay did not take long to get into the playoffs playing for a good team. A lot of Blue Jays fans took a lot of pride in the way Halladay pitched for the Phillies this year, and while it would be bittersweet to see Doc win with another team, it's certainly deserving of the best pitcher the Blue Jays have had in their history. Halladay's postseason appearance has already generated an online tag of 'Doctober'.

However, Halladay and the Philadelphia Phillies will start the postseason against the upstart Cincinnati Reds, who are led by a breakout star from Toronto named Joey Votto. Votto led the majors in OBP and the National League in slugging and even though he lost ground at the tail end of the season in the homerun chase, losing out to not only Albert Pujols but Adam Dunn as well, Votto is a good bet to be the first Canadian player to win the National League MVP since Larry Walker in 1997.

It should be a great series, compounded by the fact that if you're a Canadian baseball fan, you probably have a rooting interest in this one. First pitch is at 2:07 pm from the hands of the Reds' Edwin Volquez. Halladay. Halladay Edwin Volquez is slated to go for the Phils Reds.

[TSN series preview]

A shame though, is that the 2006 American League MVP Justin Morneau will be on the shelf for the whole of the Minnesota Twins' playoff run.

[CBC - Votto tops list of Canadians in MLB Playoffs

Hoser update: The heat is ridiculous.

I miss my igloo. I miss riding my snowmobile to the beer store to pick up a two-four of Molson. I miss moose meat and its stringy goodness. The summer heat is absolutely unbearable, so much so that it would dry the tears off the face of everybody in Ohio this morning.

Today was the big day, when Joey Votto got a chance to stare down dinosaur Charlie Manuel for keeping him off the NL All-Star team. Not only did Votto win the 'Final Vote' to earn him a spot on the team (although his numbers, though better than Pujols' is, apparently aren't enough to give him a starting spot) but on his first at-bat he went yard to deep right. What with Votto leading the NL in home runs, and the Blue Jays' Jose Bautista leading the AL, if chicks dig the long ball, then Toronto would be Kim Kardashian right now.

Ryder Hesjedal is still 4th in the Tour de France. I'm starting to think that nobody really changes places in this. All I know is I was too much of a pussy to bike up a hill to work in the heat yesterday. These riders have more stones than Palestinians.

Finally, Bruce Arthur of the National Post explains how wrong the Lebron special was. I was going to do a post like this and how athletes string along fans and the media, and how Lebron is American, Kovalchuk is Russian and Mats Sundin is Swedish, but then I remembered Scott Niedermayer. I guess we weren't above all this after all.

We have football tomorrow, gang. Sure, it's the Argos, but I'm always looking for an excuse to drink to excess to tune out Glen Suitor.

Your daily hoser update

-Somehow I think that Joey Votto has this 'Final Vote' All-Star thing locked up. Not only does Votto have the endorsement of former MVP Justin Morneau, but I'm pretty sure that Billy Wagner's campaign doesn't have a re-imagining of a Styx song going for it.



Votto went 0-for-2 tonight, but prior to yesterday's games he had the league lead in most important batting categories: Home runs, on-base percentage, slugging, and, by extension, OPS. Not only does this mean that Votto is turning into a player as good as Albert Pujols, but that the 'Eh' Factor now pretty much only recognizes statistics invented by Bill James. (Votto also lead Pujols in runs created. We needed to use our collective fingers and toes to figure that one out)

Then Ryan Zimmerman, also part of the 'Final Vote' decided to be a poor sport and hit a walkoff home run tonight. But, if Votto's 21 home runs didn't matter in determining who made the All-Star team, I doubt that one from Zimmerman will.

-We like some members of the St. Louis Cardinals. Like Blake Hawksworth, who started against Jeff Francis today. T..t..two!!! Two Canucks started on the mound tonight at Coors Field (In Canada, our Coors Field is stronger).

Unfortunately, the two combined for nine innings, 14 hits, seven earned runs and six strikeouts. Damn.

-Currently, Victoria's Ryder Hesjedal is in fourth place in the competition to ride your bike around former Nazi-occupied countries really fast. Fourth is pretty good. It seems like we're doing well without looking too pretentious.

-Why Not Winnipeg? asks Dave Naylor (played by Aaron Eckhart) in a joint effort between TSN and the Globe and Mail. Well, here's why, Jason Brough of the Kurtenblog says. I guess that solves that.

Your daily Joey Votto update

Here's your daily Joey Votto update:

One day after being left off the National League All-Star team and getting tossed against the Cubs, Votto hit two home runs to take the National League lead.

[MLB.com]

Not surprisingly, Votto is in the lead in the 'Final Vote' campaign. He has received one (1) vote courtesy of the 'Eh' Factor (as has Delmon Young in the American League).

What's great is that in the lead-up to the All-Star game is a four-game series with the Philadelphia Phillies, led by Charlie Manuel, the old coot who left Votto off the team in favour of Omar Infante, who hit a game-winning single against the Phillies on June 2nd. Supposedly Manuel was impressed enough to name him to the team.



That series gets underway Thursday. I predict infinity home runs for Votto, and a foul ball that lands in the Phillies dugout knocking Manuel into the 21st century, where he'll learn that we measure the quality of baseball players by such things as 'home runs' 'total bases' and 'on-base plus slugging' now, and not with whatever quality we used to determine that Omar Infante was a more worthy choice.

'Hustle' or 'character' or whatever bullshit that was.

Joey Votto snubbed from all-star game, gets tossed

Only Albert Pujols had hit more home runs than Joey Votto prior to Sunday's games, yet Phillies manager Charlie Manuel felt it necessary to leave the CANADIAN off the National League All-Star roster.

Sure, All-Star games themselves are meaningless, but as a friend pointed out to me earlier, appearances matter so much when it comes time to negotiate salaries or possible Hall of Fame inductions (okay, that's a bit of a stretch for Votto) down the road.

Votto also leads the National League in OPS, is second in on-base percentage. Hell, his numbers are pretty damn comparable to the starter Pujols but nobody is really disputing that Votto should have been the starter. Why Adrian Gonzalez and Ryan Howard were seen as better first basemen than Votto is bad enough, but then Manuel added insult to injury by taking Omar Infante.

Luckily, he can still make the roster via a fan vote. He's up against Heath Bell, Carlos Gonzalez, Billy Wagner and Ryan Zimmerman.

So what did Votto do after hearing the news?

Joey Votto was ejected in the first inning today here at Wrigley, for arguing a called third strike.

Votto protested, slammed his helmet to the ground and was ejected by plate umpire Angel Campos. Manager Dusty Baker rushed out of the dugout and said a few words himself, but Baker was not tossed.

[Reds Win 14-3; Votto ejected]

The strike call itself was iffy, definitely low and probably a bit outside as well, although MLB gameday listed it as a strike.

All in all, Votto has seen better days, although Cincy still managed to beat the Cubs 14-3. Hell, maybe he just wanted to take the day off.

Only one Canadian was sent to Disneyland, that being Justin Morneau (duh). Three Jays are on the roster: John Buck, Jose Bautista and Vernon Wells.

Wednesday June 2nd - Morning Briefing

Pronger... and Angel Hernandez goes ape shit

-Philadelphia has had trouble with discipline in the Cup Finals. Chicago can't get its first line going. Neither team has played very well, and Chicago find themselves up 2-0. So what's the biggest story? Naturally, Chris Pronger picking up a puck and upsetting Ben Eager.

Down Goes Brown, everybody's favourite, has the latest on the absurdity, chronicling other "jerk" things Chris Pronger has done, prior to him stealing game pucks from the Cup Finals. [Down Goes Brown]

-What's the deal with Steve Nash's legacy? Tim Micallef uses sound bits from Charles Barkley to convince the world that Nash is a surefire Hall of Famer the minute he retires: [The Score]

Now... my friends and I had a debate over a glass of wine/rum/beer tonight, how many more years does Nash have left in him? My completely unfounded guess is six, based on the rate he's improved over the years. With Goran Dragic developing into a capable backup point guard, Nash will only need to play 30 minutes to give the Suns a good chance.

-If you happened to catch the Blue Jays yesterday, you hit the jackpot. Toronto played great until the 9th, when Kevin Gregg went all Little League on Tampa's hitters and threw five walks to allow the Rays to erase a 2-run Toronto lead and take one of their own. This came after Carlos Peña was not granted a timeout at bat, struck out, and forced Joe Maddon to come out and yell at home plate umpire Angel Hernandez. Maddon was subsequently tossed, then went after Joe West for good measure.

The way Maddon acted was enough to make Joe West seem downright reasonable. He is the crew chief, but this is the same umpire who tossed Ozzie Guillen and Mark Buerhle for showing up to the ballpark last week. He is a major league umpire with his own publicist and country record, but Joe Maddon made him seem reasonable.

Either way, Gregg got tossed after Cito Gaston took him out of the game four batters too late, and the Jays came close to tieing the game in the bottom of the 9th, with Vernon Wells coming within a foot to the top of the wall to making it a 7-7 ball game. He settled for the RBI double, Jays drop a close, important one to Tampa.

Tomorrow is David Price (7-2) against Shawn Marcum (5-1). I advise you not to miss this one.

-Also starting tomorrow, Vancouver's Jeff Francis for Colorado against the Giants. More Canadians tonight, Justin Morneau homered, but the Twins lost 7-1 to Seattle. Joey Votto homered too for Cincinatti, but he also went 4-for-5 and his Reds beat the Cardinals 9-8. He also score three runs and took the lead in the National League batting race, two points ahead of Christian Guzman with .326, or .326 above the 'Aaron Hill Line.'

-CFL camps open tomorrow. Very excited for pigskin up here.

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That's pretty well it. If I missed something, like a Brian Tallet perfect game, I'll be sure to pay full lip service tomorrow in a post directing you to somebody else's work. Have a great hump day.