…According to John Romano of the St. Petersberg Times, Rays family members in attendance at Citizens Bank Park for Game 3 of the World Series on Saturday night were harassed and abused by Phillies fans. It was so bad that a 9 year-old boy had beer poured on him, also a Rays family member refused to come out of a bathroom stall because Philly fans were beating on the walls and threatening him. Wow, Keep it Classy Philadelphia….[The Heater]

…Country Music star Tim McGraw honored his father Tug McGraw before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch on Saturday night before Game 3. Discreetly he spread some ashes of his late father and former Phillies pitcher on the mound before throwing out the first pitch. [ESPN]

…According to Fox Sports Ken Rosenthal, Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer was suffering from a stomach virus the night before and night of one of the best pitching performances of his life. His wife said it’s the worst she’s ever seen him, yet Jamie had no plans in missing his start in Game 3 of the World Series. [Fox Sports]

“It was so bad I had to change the sheets twice,” Karen said. “He ruined two pillows. Our comforter is at the cleaners right now.

“I kept saying, ‘Should we be calling the team? Should you maybe not be pitching? I don’t know. It’s only the game of your life.”

…Philadelphia Phillies closer Brad Lidge has been named “DHL’s Delivery Man Of The Year”. Lidge was perfect on the year converting 41 of 41 save opportunities during the course of the regular season. [MLB.com]

“‘You’re our closer,’” Lidge recalls being told by manager Charlie Manuel, general manager Pat Gillick and assistant general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. “‘You’re going to get out there, and we’re going to give you the ball, and if it doesn’t go good on the first game of the season, you’re still going to get the ball the next game, because you’re our closer.”

…Colorado Rockies RHP Luis Vizcaino was arrested for driving under the influence according to Tampa Bay police. This all happened early this morning, as police pulled over his vehicle his blood alcohol level was just over the limit. [Yahoo]

…According to Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star, the Royals and Indians are trying to work out a deal for Mark Teahen for an outfielder. The Royals are believed to be interested in three different Indians outfielders. Franklin Gutierrez, Ben Fransisco and minor league outfielder Trevor Crowe. [Kansas City Star]

…In the ongoing saga of Team Japan looking for a manager for their World Baseball Classic Team a new name has surfaced as a front runner for the gig, Tatsunori Hara. Hara is the manager of the Yomiuri Giants. [CBS]

“Considering his experience and achievements, we feel Mr. Hara is the best man for the job,” Japanese baseball commissioner Ryozo Kato said Monday.

The second installment of the BDD Writers picks takes a look into the Cy Young award. As was the case with the first installment, each of Baseball Digest Daily’s writers were asked to,

Put themselves in the shoes of a writer from the Baseball Writer’s Association of American and provide, for the Rookie of the Year, an ordered list of 3 nominee’s. Each first place vote would be worth 5 points, second worth 3, and third worth a single point.

Similarly, the player with the most points in both the National League and American League will be crowned this year’s BDD Cy Young winner. As was the case with the Rookie of the Year ballots, the writers were given the optional opportunity to explain their picks. Additionally, the ballots were to be the writers picks, not their prediction.

There isn’t a whole lot to report from the NL. Lincecum was clearly the best pitcher in the league and was voted accordingly. Santana made a late season push, and I wonder how the votes would have come out had Santana had better bullpen support and subsequently led his team to the playoffs.

The Brandon Webb pick does not thrill me, however, as you can see, the third place vote was pretty much a toss up. Pick your favorite pitcher or your favorite team.

Let’s now look into the writers rationale behind their individual picks:

Brian

Here’s hoping the BBWAA doesn’t get this one wrong and go the Brandon Webb route. If I had a vote, Webb might not even make the top 6 as I’d consider putting Cole Hamels, Ryan Dempster and CC Sabathia ahead of him. As for the choice of Lincecum, he was dominant, had an impressive record and led the NL in H/9, K/9, Strikeouts and ERA+. He also finished 2nd in ERA, wins and Win-Loss % and played on a team that managed to win just 72 games.

Bill

Johan Santana made a late push to put him neck-and-neck with Lincecum, but the Giants ace’s peripherals give him the nod.

The FIP is what really clinches the deal for Lincecum, but the K/9 is very impressive.

Rob

CC provided slightly less value to the Brewers than the next tier of great SP in the NL did for their teams (Dempster, Webb, Haren, Hamels, Sheets, Billingsley, Peavy), but doing it in half a season makes him a lot closer to the top two guys than to these. A simply astonishing partial season, and he’d be a very deserving winner if he gets it.

Mike

CC Sabathia was awesome, with or without periods in his name, but had only a half season in the NL. There’s precedent for a Cy anyway, but the NL competition was too good and too deep, making it hard even to narrow it down to the top three. Webb was great, except down the stretch when his team needed him. Haren was solid all year and, except for wins, equaled or bested Webb in virtually every peripheral, and was himself bested in several categories by Cole Hamels. But Hamels only had a 14-10 year, making him similar to Santana, who at 16-7 also didn’t seem to have the mound presence to rally his team behind him to a win. Tim Lincecum edges everyone out in ERA+, has a higher win % than any of these other guys, more wins than anyone but Webb, struck out more guys more often than anyone else, and did all this for one of the worst teams in baseball. That gives him the edge to me, but he’s among excellent competition.

Brandon

When I first sat down to make my picks, I wasn’t even going to look into the numbers. I figured I knew the story and didn’t need any convincing. While my opinion didn’t change after I eventually looked at the numbers, it became surprisingly close after looking at VORP, WPA, WS, PRC, and SNLVAR. Lincecum came away on top, with Santana finishing second, and fellow Canadian Ryan Dempster completing his full circle surprise season. I’m not shocked that Dempster isn’t getting more play in the upcoming days of Free Agency, but I am shocked that he isn’t getting much love from writers on the Cy Young ballot.

The American League is similar to the National League in that it is clearly a two horse race. Unlike the NL, however, I imagine the BBWAA will get this right as there truly is not a third party worthy of consideration. Here’s how things worked out:

If you were wondering, I was the guy who took the unanimous victory away from Cliff Lee, which I’ll get into later. Clearly my colleagues believe Lee had a better season. What is most interesting from the ballots is the belief that Lester is clearly the third best pitcher in the American League. The startling fact from that is because there isn’t an argument that could place Lester as the #1 or #2 guy.

Now let’s see how the writers explain their picks:

Brian

For me, there are only two real candidates — Lee and Halladay — which is why I threw in Moose for an honorary vote for his 20-win accomplishment. I don’t get hung up on wins and I understand the argument for Halladay over Lee but Lee was not a product of run support and genuine good luck like Brandon Webb in the National League, Lee was really, really good. Hopefully, K-Rod doesn’t get a lot of support here… a genuine product of his team.

Bill

I really wanted to give the AL Cy Young to Roy Halladay because he was my pre-season pick to win it, but Lee has slightly better numbers. Halladay’s pitched about 23 innings more (thanks in part to 5 more complete games) but overall has been slightly inferior to Lee. A 0.06 difference in WHIP isn’t that much to tip the scale in any way towards Halladay.

Rob

I really wanted to give a vote to John Danks… there’s no way Chicago makes the playoffs without his surprising emergence, and to put up such numbers in that bandbox was Tour de Force that few will appreciate and respect. But Lester was better, and Boston’s an awful park for pitchers, especially LHP. “Statheads” poo-poo the idea that K-Rod had a great season, but he pitched in almost half the games, had the highest “leverage” rating, per Baseball Prospectus.com, and faced a collection of batters which were much better than average. That his underlying stats weren’t as good as the elite relievers seems hard to hold to strongly against him, as he was obviously pitching tired frequently, and was “pitching to the situation” almost every time. I shifted him around in every spot between 2 and 5, but settled on #5, or 2nd Honorable Mention.

Mike

Halladay had a staggering 9 CGs and a WHIP of 1.05, though his 20-11 record isn’t as impressive as Lee’s 22-3, particularly as Lee did it with a poorer team. Lee tossed a not-too-shabby 4 CGs, more than doubling his career total (Halladay’s thrown 40 in his career), while leading the league in ERA+ with 175. Either one of these guys would be easy choices, were it not for one another guy named Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez, complicating issues horribly, by shattering the saves mark. But K-Rod has his own award, and saves is an overrated category for a reason: the Cy is for starters.

Brandon

For me, this wasn’t as difficult as it looked. Entering September, I was fairly convinced that Lee would be the winner. However, an article at Baseball Prospectus (free content) led me to thinking Halladay deserves more credit then he is receiving. The theory was that Halladay had faced substantially superior offensive clubs. The evidence is substantial and enough for me to take Halladay as the American League’s best pitcher.

There you have it, Baseball Digest Daily’s 2008 Cy Young winners are Tim Lincecum and Cliff Lee with Johan Santana and Roy Halladay being their leagues respective runner’s-up.

Tomorrow night I will have the National League MVP, and hopefully a Game 6 will provide post-reading entertainment for the American League MVP on Wednesday night.

We’d love to hear what you think of our votes and who you would have taken.

Join the BDD crew again on Monday night for Game 5 of the World Series!  The BDD crew will be live blogging on Game 5 where the Phillies look to clinch their first World Series in 28 years and the Rays look to play another day.  Click here or on the logo to join the Live Blog (Blog will start at 7:45 PM with starting lineups and a preview of the night’s match-up.

We look forward to reading reader’s comments and fielding questions about the World Series action.  More details on the Live Blog later today!

Also, in one spot, here is all of BDD’s World Series coverage in one post!

PREVIEWS!  PREVIEWS!  PREVIEWS!

• Bill Chuck’s “World Series Preview”
• Michael Street’s “World Series Matchups”
• Brian Joseph’s “World Series Preview: Philadelphia Phillies-Tampa Bay Rays”
• Brandon Heikoop’s Recap of “BDD Writers World Series Pick”

RECAPS!

• World Series Game 1: Phillies 3, Rays 2 - “Same Ol’ for King Cole in Game 1″
• World Series Game 2: Rays 4, Phillies 2 - “Rays Win Ugly in Game 2″
• World Series Game 3: Phillies 5, Rays 4 - “Ruiz Ends Bizzare 9th With Walk-Off Squibber; Phillies Win Game 3″
• World Series Game 4: Phillies 10, Rays 2 - “Phillies Bats Explode in Game 4; Rays Pushed to Brink in Philly”

NEWS

• Joe Hamrahi’s “Tampa Bay Announces World Series Roster”
• Timm Davis’ “Short Hops” from 10/22 on The Kalas Family
• Timm Davis’ “Short Hops” from 10/23 on Arrests at Tropicana Field at Game 1 & Weather Threat in Philadelphia
• Timm Davis’ “Short Hops” from 10/24 on More Arrests at Tropicana Field & The Phillies’ Players’ Disappointment with Shortened Player Introductions

COMMENTARY

• Rob McQuown’s “Why Walk Utley?” 
• BDD’s “World Series Game 2 Live Blog” hosted on CoverIt Live

Since 1983, Philadelphia’s four major sports teams have gone without a title.  After a four home run barrage — two by Ryan Howard and one by pitcher Joe Blanton — the Phillies won 10-2 in Game 4 and moved one win away from delivering that elusive championship to their passionate fans.

“I didn’t really buy into the whole thing about the city and the drought and all that kind of stuff,” said Ryan Howard.  “I’ve heard about it and heard about all the losing and all that kind of stuff but wanted to help change the face of this organization and change the basis of the organization as far as trying to make it a winner, because I didn’t want to be associated as a loser.”

Howard did everything he could on Sunday night to get the franchise with 10,000 losses one step closer to the Phillies first championship in 28 years with two huge home runs that knocked in five of the team’s 10 runs.

So did Game 4 starter Joe Blanton.  Not only did Blanton pitch six strong innings and hold the Rays to two runs on four hits, the mid-season acquisition picked a perfect time to hit his first Major League home run.  Blanton’s homer in the fifth was the first by a pitcher in the World Series in 34 years.

“I just close my eyes and swing hard in case I make contact,” Blanton said.  “That’s really the only thing I can say.”

“He said he got mad because I kept putting ‘take’ on him,” joked manager Charlie Manuel.

The game was close through three and a half innings as struggling Rays starter Andy Sonnanstine pitched out of jams in the first three innings and the Phillies left seven base runners stranded and the Phillies were only able to score two runs despite loading the bases twice.  Carl Crawford hit a solo home run in the top of the fourth to close the gap to 2-1 but Howard’s first home run — a three-run blast — cushioned the Phillies lead to 5-1.

“When [Howard] hit the three-run homer, that was big,” Manuel said.  “And it got everybody — that was kind of a lift, but at the same time I think we didn’t get overexcited.”

But there was unexpected excitement in the fifth.  After the Rays added a solo home run in the top of the fifth from pinch hitter Eric Hinske — added earlier in the day for the injured Cliff Floyd — pitcher Blanton got it back with a solo shot of his own in the bottom of the inning.

“I jumped up too fast, I almost passed out,” said Howard.  “Honestly, I saw it off the bat and I jumped up, and I thought, ‘wow, that ball has a chance.’  As soon as it left, I had to grab on to the rail, because I jumped up too fast.”

Blanton’s home run was memorable but so was his pitching performance.  Blanton won his second postseason game and the Phillies went to 3-0 when in games where Blanton started.  In six innings, Blanton struck out seven and held the top four batters in the lineup hitless in 11 at-bats.

Up 6-2 in the eighth, Jayson Werth and Howard each added two-run homers to extend the Phillies lead to 10-2.  The Phillies’ eight-run win was the biggest win by a National League team in the World Series since the San Francisco Giants beat the Anaheim Angels 16-4 in Game 5 in 2002.

With the win, the Phillies extend their postseason home record to 6-0 and have a chance to close out the series in Philadelphia on Monday.  Cole Hamels, already 4-0 in the postseason, gets the first of three opportunities to get the Phillies their first championship since 1980.  Hamels is also trying to become the first pitcher to win five postseason starts in one year.  The Rays counter with Scott Kazmir in a Game 1 rematch that is do-or-die for Tampa Bay.

“It’s about beating the guy tomorrow and getting back home.  I don’t want us looking any further ahead than that,” said Rays manager Joe Maddon.  “It’s about tomorrow’s game.  They’re pitcher is really good; so is ours.  We have to not give them four outs in an inning.  We have to have better at-bats.  We have to see more pitches.  Those are the keys to our success that have gotten away from us a bit.  To the Phillies’ credit, they’ve played really well and they are very good, but we have to play our game in order to win tomorrow and the next couple of days after that.”

NOTES:  The Phillies became the fifth team in World Series history to hit three or more home runs in back-to-back games with their four home runs in Game 4 and three in Game 3.  Before the Phillies, the ‘32 Yankees (Games 3 & 4), ‘55 Dodgers (Games 4 & 5), ‘64 Yankees (Games 6 & 7) and ‘02 Giants (Games 1 & 2) also hit three or more home runs in back-to-back games… The Phillies are the 43rd team to take a 3-1 series lead.  36 of the 42 have gone on to win the series and 23 of the 42 have won the series in five games.  The last team to overcome a 3-1 deficit was the ‘85 Royals… Joe Blanton’s home runs was the 15th time a pitcher homered in the World Series and first since Ken Holtzman homered for the Oakland Athletics in 1974… According to STATS, Inc., Blanton is 24-9 (.727) after August 1 and is third in winning percentage after that date amongst all active pitchers.  Only Roy Oswalt (.806) and Johan Santana (.746) have a higher winning percentage.  Game 5 starter Cole Hamels is fourth on the list with an 18-8 (.692) record… The team who scored first has won all four games… Tampa Bay’s Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria are a combined 0-for-29 with 15 strikeouts in the World Series.

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PHILLIES THREE KEYS

• The Manuel Manual

An assist has to go to the Phillies’ scouting department and Carlos Ruiz.  Manuel acknowledged their scouting of the Rays lineup and Blanton credited Ruiz for calling a great game.  Manuel continued to go to Eric Bruntlett in left as a defensive sub for Pat Burrell and there was a fly ball to left in the seventh that Burrell’s speed may have prevented him from getting to it or at least made it a challenging play in the field.  Also, the Phillies bullpen worked right through the Rays lineup and preserved the win for Blanton.

• Hold Serve at Home

The Phillies are now 6-0 at Citizens Bank Park and the players continue to credit the pumped up crowd in Philadelphia for an added adrenaline boost.  The fan reaction to the NLCS win while the team was on the road in Los Angeles saw fans pour onto the streets of Philadelphia.  Imagine the reaction to a Game 5 win that clinches the World Series.

• Myers and Moyer

Jamie Moyer’s performance in Game 3 is now legendary thanks to Ken Rosenthal’s report about how sick the 45-year-old veteran was before his Game 3 start.  No one knew at the time or it might have been as hyped as Michael Jordan’s NBA Finals performance with the flu in ‘97.  What Moyer’s win did more than anything is give the Phillies their best possible shot to win it all with ace Hamels on the mound at home in Game 5.  If the Rays break through against Hamels — no one has yet — it will be up to Myers or Moyer to steal one in St. Petersburg to win it all.

RAYS THREE KEYS

• Minimize the Phillies “Big Innings”

A three-run fourth and a four-run eighth put two crooked numbers on the board for the potent Phillies offense.  And although it was only one run, Blanton’s homer in the fifth cancelled out Eric Hinske’s pinch hit home run earlier in the inning.

• Choose the Right Closer

It is nearly impossible the Rays can make a mistake here and come back in the Series.  Based on the way they’ve used their relievers in the three losses, young David Price is the guy.  He’s proven once on a grand stage — Game 7 of the ALCS — that he’s up to the challenge and if the Rays are to bounce back, he’s going to have to prove it again.

• Avoid Fielding Mistakes

Akinori Iwamura had a rough game with two errors and Philadelphia earned two big unearned runs.  A bigger miscue was Andy Sonnanstine’s decision in the first on a Ryan Howard grounder to go after Jimmy Rollins at third instead of throwing to second to start a double play.  Sonnanstine got Rollins into a rundown and Longoria tagged out Rollins but third base umpire Tim Welke blew the call and loaded the bases with one out.  If Sonnanstine instead throws to second, it is likely the Rays turn a double play and get out of the inning unscathed.  Instead, Sonnanstine walked Pat Burrell and the Phillies jumped out to a 1-0 lead.

Click on graphic to open BDD’s Game 4 Scoresheet.