Monday Bantering: Donaldson, Stroman get awards

With 27 days until the Jays pitchers and catchers report to work in Dunedin, I'd kill for some real news, or even a real rumor, or a fake rumor, I'd take anything right now. Maybe the Jays hire another Director comma of Something or Other.

Some bits and pieces of almost news:

MLB finally give Josh Donaldson his MVP award yesterday. The fun part was him crediting Barry Zito for giving the push he needed to get hitting:

"[I] looked up at the scoreboard in 2012, and he was hitting about 40 points higher than I was, and it made me realize I needed to change a few things," Donaldson said. "I've got to thank Barry for showing up that year and bringing the stick."

Marcus Stroman also won an award, the "You Gotta Have Heart" award

It does sound like an award that was invented for him.

MLB Network called game 5 of the ALCS the 'Game of the Season'. About the easiest decision  they have ever made.

Yahoo! has an interview with baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, in which he avoided answering any question. Among the topics:

• Domestic Violence: "we concluded the most important thing for us to do was have a collectively bargained policy"
• On Pete Rose:  "at the end of the day, it's important to remember what my responsibility is under the major league constitution, and I tried to discharge that responsibility"
• On expansion: "We're a growth business. Sooner or later, growth businesses expand. Having said that, I do not have a timetable. It's not a short-term project for us."
• On the possibility of an international draft:  "Getting into a single method of entry into the industry will be the most effective in terms of promoting competitive balance."
• On DH in NL: Well, he seemed to say it wasn't likely.

I'm likely not the only one that immediately thought of Brett Lawrie. I do think that if the team is winning, chemistry doesn't matter and if the team is losing, they aren't going have good chemistry, no matter who is in the clubhouse.