If you hadn’t seen or heard because you were watching Michigan @ the Ohio State on Saturday, the University of Missouri Tigers had a TD nullified due to a holding call in their game against Iowa State.� The Big 12 apparently decided to call Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel and apologize for the mistake.� Nice touch.

By MIKE DeARMOND
The Kansas City Star

COLUMBIA | Missouri and coach Gary Pinkel got another tough call today. The Big 12 Conference head of officials making an admission by telephone that MU quarterback Chase Daniel�s touchdown dive should not have been nullified by a holding call.

Admitting that � just like the Fifth Down and the Kick �n� Catch games � Missouri should have won at Iowa State on Saturday but was instead beaten with the aid of another historically shoddy officiating decision.

�I just got a call from the conference office and Walt Anderson (coordinator of football officials), and he said that they clearly made a mistake on that last play where Chase Daniel scored,� Pinkel said during the Big 12 media teleconference. �He said to me, �We blew it.� He said, �If you call that you have to call it 40 times a game.� �

Because of the erroneous holding penalty on MU lineman Monte Wyrick from the 1, Missouri faced fourth and goal from the 11. Daniel was sacked on the play, handing Iowa State the 21-16 win.

The NL MVP Voting Breakdown

Scoring: 14 points for first place, nine for second, eight for third and on down to one for 10th.

Others receiving votes: Andruw Jones (29), Carlos Delgado (23), Nomar Garciaparra (18), Rafael Furcal (11), Garrett Atkins (10), Matt Holliday (10), Aramis Ramirez (5), Freddy Sanchez (5), Chris Carpenter (4), Chipper Jones (3), Mike Cameron (2), Jimmy Rollins (2), Bronson Arroyo (1), Jason Bay (1).

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Ryan Howard of Philadelphia won the MVP, beating out St. Louis’ Albert Pujols in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Looking @ the balloting, a few things strike first in my mind:

1. Pujols garnering a third place vote. What writer in their right mind would file that ballot? If the award is given to those who are nicest to the writers, I guess this could be the reason why El Hombre landed that vote. If you did not already know, Pujols is perceived to be a moody guy.
2. It looks like some of the writers legitimately debated who was more deserving, judging by the closeness in first place voting between the two stars.
3. The perceived outcry in some circles that Pujols was ‘jobbed’ in receiving the award. There are some legitimate complaints (Pujols being better defensively, Pujols’ superior average with runners in scoring position (RISP), his OPS (on base percentage + slugging percentage) and his team winning the division as opposed to his team missing the playoffs completely (all fine points brought up by Rob Neyer and posted earlier). But lest not forget Howard’s excellent numbers once his team and GM essentially threw in the towel on the season by dealing one of his team’s biggest bats in Abreu away. To wit — a .355 average with 30 homers and 78 RBIs in the last 2 1/2 months and the Fightin’ Phillies missing the wild card by three games.

From Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com

Ken Rosenthal / FOXSports.com

The Dodgers are close to signing free-agent center fielder Juan Pierre, possibly paving the way for free-agent outfielder Dave Roberts to sign with the Giants, Brewers or Rangers, FOXSports.com has learned.

Pierre is believed to be seeking $9M a season and his contract could be for as long as five years.

The Orioles are on the fringes of the Roberts sweepstakes but they are also pursuing free-agent left fielder Carlos Lee, sources say.

Pierre, 29, has had over 200 hits in three of the last four seasons.

Pierre, who hasn’t missed a game over the last four seasons, hit .292 in 2006 with the Cubs.

He won a World Series with the Florida Marlins in 2003.

Roberts, who spent the last two seasons with the San Diego Padres, is most known for his speed on the basepaths. He stole 49 bases in 2006 and his career stolen-base percentage is better than 80 percent.

Roberts, a career .270 hitter, won a World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2004.

Peter Gammons chimes in with his latest piece on INsider re: the Soriano deal and other notes on MLB…

Now the Cubs have Lee and Ramirez around the electrifying Soriano, plus an above-average offensive catcher in Michael Barrett and Cesar Izturis and DeRosa in the middle of the infield. While the Astros are trying to retool, the Cardinals are trying to sign pitchers, the Brewers are on the rise and the Reds have signed Alex Gonzalez and Mike Stanton, the Cubs’ explosion in the market could make them instant contenders.

They now want to sign two starting pitchers and a couple of left-handed bats.

“Jim Hendry defined what he needed,” says another GM, “and he’s willing to spend to get it.”

Soriano, who will be 31 in January, has ascended offensively the last three years. His OPS has risen from .808 to .821 to .911, his steals from 18 to 30 to 41, his homers from 28 to 36 to 46.

More notes after the jump More after the jump »

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold breaks down the MVP races of both leagues in his usual, meticulous manner.

Seametry: Aggregate MVPs
By Derrick Goold
11/20/2006 10:25 am

TOWER GROVE � For one of the Sunday Hot Corners late in the season, we attempted to calculate the �V� in MVP and illustrate what hitters had the best claim to the award. One thing was missing from those aggregate rankings.

Defense.

The National League MVP will be awarded tonight, and and a couple of players with St. Louis ties will finish one-two in the voting. Either St. Louis native Ryan Howard will win or St. Louis Cardinal Albert Pujols will. But who should?

To explore the MVP award, statistically, back in August I lined up all of the candidates (including some surprise names) in both leagues and charted where they ranked in eight categories. Not sure why, but I�m a fan of aggregates and I think using the rankings in those eight categories helps define an argument, if not settle it.

I ran the same numbers last night with the 2006 final stats.

Call the calculations the MVPag.

Wait until you see what Pujols scored.

How it works is simple. Consider New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, a favorite for the American League MVP. In the AL, he ranks second in batting average (.343), 29th in slugging (.483), fourth in on-base percentage (.417), 67th in home runs (14), second in runs scored (114) and 22nd in RBIs (97). Two new-Math categories were also used. Jeter ranked first in Value Over Replacement Player (80.5) and first in Win Shares (33).

Add his rankings together to get his aggregate sum: 128.0.

The lower the sum the better.

More good stuff after the jump or @ The Birdland Blogs.

More after the jump »

A good take and breakdown on the MVP race between Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard and St. Louis’ Albert Pujols by Rob Neyer. From ESPN INsider…

By Rob Neyer
ESPN Insider
Archive

Most Valuable Player. What exactly does it mean? Depends on who you ask.

Let’s take those in reverse order.

Player. Not much to argue about there.

Valuable. Every player is valuable to some extent. If Neifi Perez hadn’t been stationed somewhere between first and second base in September, a lot of routine ground balls would have become singles instead. True, the Tigers probably would have been better off with just about anybody else in the lineup, but Perez did have some value.

The tricky word is the first one: Most.

Another excerpt follows after the jump.

More after the jump »

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Nomar Garciaparra is staying with the Los Angeles Dodgers, agreeing to a two-year contract.

The deal with the All-Star first baseman will be formally announced Monday, Dodgers spokesman Joe Jareck said Sunday night.

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Pending the release of the financials, it appears to be a good move by the Dodgers as they avoid going long-term with Garciaparra and keep a key cog in their line-up after losing J.D. Drew to free agency.