XM MLB Chat: Dan Shaughnessy on a BBWAA defining moment, Sen. Mitchell's conflict, & "simply the greatest postseason closer in history"

1. Shaughnessy says the time is right for the BBWAA to get out of baseball awards:

"Big Schill's disclosure that he gets $1 million for a single 2008 Cy Young vote might be the final straw in the old debate about baseball writers voting for postseason awards. I was aware of players having clauses for "winning" an award. But it would be costly and difficult to rig an entire election, so the conflict was less obvious. In this case, there are 28 baseball writers around the country who'll have Cy ballots (voters can put three names on the ballot, in descending order), and a third-place vote could be fairly inconspicuous if Schilling has an OK year. It's a blatant conflict.
Unless these clauses are disallowed, it's time for the BBWAA to give up the postseason awards."

2. On Senator Mitchell, Shaughnessy says:

"Speaking of conflicts, it's absolutely outrageous that a man who appears on the Red Sox' masthead as "director" is also in charge of Major League Baseball's drug investigation. George Mitchell no doubt is a great and honorable statesman. He disgraces himself by holding this position with the Sox while leading an "independent" and very important investigation. It taints his report and the Red Sox. He should have stepped down from the Sox or refused the assignment from Bud Selig."

3. On "simply the greatest postseason closer in history:"

"One of the dumbest letters to the editor in history appeared in last Sunday's New York Times sports section. The writer was a Sox fan from Maine who stated, "To compare Papelbon with Mariano Rivera is silly: Papelbon hasn't blown a litany of pennant- and World Series-clinching games." Wow. This is the kind of nitwit mentality that is giving entitled Sox fans a bad name around the country. Papelbon was perfect in his first try this year. Come back and talk to us after 11 more postseasons and three more World Series wins.
Rivera is simply the greatest postseason closer in history. Bobby Jenks was pretty good in 2005, but no crazed White Sox fan tried to say he was better than Rivera."