Khalil Greene, Jason Bay, Jose Castillo

If Jason Bay doesn't win the ROY, it's going to be because the Pirates aren't playing "meaningful" games. The sportswriters can only watch so many games and follow so many teams. And we all know that stats from meaningful games are more meaningful than stats from meaningless games. In other words, because it's easier to hit home runs when you play for the Pirates, Bay's numbers will be discounted. All of our games are meaningless and pitchers - like Ben Sheets last night, or all those Cardinals last month - go real easy on the team out of pity. And when your lineup is brimming with home-run hitters, you get all that extra protection.

Truth is, the sportswriters will vote for the player they've seen more often down the stretch.

And they'll also say that it's harder to play the middle infield so Greene's numbers don't have to equal Bay's for him to deserve the award. And the fact that Greene played on a better team that won more games will give him more of the luster of a winner. And that will seem right because it's so much harder to hit home runs when you play for a winning team. Year after year, the home run champion is someone who plays for a team in the cellar.

I'd accept there's some validity to the case for Greene over Bay if there was evidence that playing a more difficult position or playing for a winning team wasn't mainly just an excuse to not like what you're ignoring. According to the MLB press release, Jose Castillo didn't get one vote for his good month. Over at OnlyBucs, wvbucco was the first to point that out. Good eye. He's right. What's up with that? He put up a 971 OPS with 12 RBI, 9 R, 3 HR, and 6 doubles batting eighth. The others receiving votes are deserving, but Castillo's numbers were nearly as good as Greene's. That's got to be worth one vote.

Not everyone is ignoring the Pirates: Mike Gonzalez got a vote. Maybe the sportswriters have the right general idea. It would be easier to recognize a decision to give the nod to Greene over Bay if Pittsburgh's Greene, Jose Castillo, was getting a little more recognition.