Ichiro Wins MVP, Padres Recall Several Prospects, and Joyner Joins Front Office

by Geoff Young on Nov 20, 2001

  • Ichiro won the AL MVP. Good for him. I personally don’t think he was one of the 10 best players in the AL this year but it’s not his fault the voters picked him.
  • Padres on Monday purchased the contracts of pitchers Dennis Tankersley, Ben Howard, Eric Cyr, Mike Bynum, Cliff Bartosh and Todd Donovan, and added them to the 40-man roster.
  • Tankersley, Howard, Cyr, and Bynum are probably familiar to most people. Any or all of them could see some time in the San Diego rotation in 2002, with Cyr or Bynum possibly also contributing out of the bullpen. Bartosh is a lefty reliever with a good arm, and Donovan is a speedy center fielder. Depending on what they decide to do with Jose Nunez, Bartosh could be a factor at some point next year, too. Donovan is probably a little farther away.
  • Wally Joyner has returned to the Pads as special assistant to GM Kevin Towers. Joyner and Towers were college teammates at BYU so this comes as no surprise. It’s good to see the organization hiring guys like Joyner and Dave Magadan in key instructional and talent evaluation roles. These are men who understand the value of plate discipline, and their philosophy will help foster a better approach to hitting throughout the system. Not that their presence is a panacea for the Padres but it certainly should help.
  • And, in the general weirdness department, two fans are suing MasterCard over their commercials showing two men driving all over the country to different ballparks on the grounds that the company violated copyright by stealing ideas from a documentary they created back in 1998.

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