Yup - Huston (fixed spelling error! :thumbsup ) Street pretty much deserved the award - closing for a playoff contending team, one year out of closing games for the Texas Longhorns is pretty impressive. I never figured out why so many teams passed on him during the draft so that he fell down to the compensation round. All of the scouting reports were excellent and his results at the college level was stellar.

He was on Billy Beane's list all along, before the draft and he was quite pleased that he fell into the compensation round because he was prepared to take him in the regular 1st round. Heck, he was on my list for the Giants to take him. :no

Pretty sad that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays get so little attention, because San Francisco born Jonny Gomes had a heckuva season. If he played for any of the big market teams, he would have garnered a lot of votes.

But when all was said and done, it could be argued that 24 year old Joe Blanton had the best season. Take away a awful stretch in May and his numbers would have been even better than what they ended up. Poor run support cost him a lot of wins and yielded his .500 record, but statistically, his numbers beat Chacin.

23rd in MLB with 3.53 ERA
25th in MLB with 1.22 WHIP
tied for 14th with .236 BAA
21st in MLB with .694 OPS
22 quality starts in 33 starts

Even more impressive that this was achieved in the extra batter hitting American League.

Anyways, one thing that is happening in baseball is the increased influx of prospects into the Major League level. And that is a good thing. :thumbsup