MLB Awards

September 1 is when MLB rosters are allowed to expand from 25 to 40. Teams can do whatever they want with the extra 15 spots, as long as the player was on the 40 man roster to begin with. Contending teams can call up some minor league players in hopes of finding the final puzzle piece in the push for the playoffs (that’s right, I just used alliteration). Bad teams can bring up prospects to have them audition for next year. With so much roster flexibility, let’s just hope bullpens don’t keep growing at the exponential pace they are currently. 16 man pitching staff, anyone?

September also is a time for the annual MLB awards debate. Does Most Valuable Player mean best player on the best team? Can a starting pitcher be the “Most Valuable” when they pitch every 5 games? What method do you use to determine “value”? Can a starting pitcher with 13 wins get the Cy Young Award?

In fitting with the current theme of baseball blogging, let’s take a look at some of the candidates up for each of the awards.

AL MVP

Jose Bautista: Currently leads the AL in WAR, home runs, walks, and OPS. He is an absolute monster with the bat, and I don’t know if many people expected him to duplicate his break out season from last year at age 30. No question, he has.

Adrian Gonzalez: When people say “leading the league in hitting,” everyone knows that means leading in batting average. But saying leading in hitting implies that this guy is the best at everything involved with hitting. Well, it’s pretty true that A-Gon has been a great addition to the Red Sox this year, but is he even the most valuable player on his own team?

Dustin Pedroia/Jacoby Ellsbury: It’s impossible to discuss the MVP race and not include these two in the same sentence. They are each having monster years, playing great defense, oh and they are on the best team in the American League. Their WAR is basically identical. Come to think of it, all of their offensive stats are eerily similar this year. Check it out.

*Side Point: Even though Pedroia already has an MVP, there is no way either of these guys can win because their identical offensive profile will split the vote for each of them.

*Second side point: Even though they play for the team with the third highest payroll in baseball, they are both very likeable baseball players, in my opinion. That statement implies that players for the Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies are easily dislikable.

Curtis Granderson: By far the MVP of my fantasy baseball team, which by default obviously makes him AL MVP. But seriously, he should win. 38 HR, 107 RBI, 24 SB. .959 OPS. He’s got my vote.

 

Alex Gordon: I hope you didn’t quit reading when you saw his name listed. Bear with me. He is having the breakout year that everyone expected in 2008. He’s fifth in the AL in WAR, which puts him directly ahead of Miguel Cabrera, Ben Zobrist, and Kevin Youkilis. His OBP is higher than Granderson, and Ellsbury, and I would argue that he is playing gold glove defense in left field. He leads the majors in outfield assists and his fielding and base running metrics are among the tops in the league. I know he won’t win the MVP, but he is very deserving of votes. But do yourself a favor and watch his catch from yesterday’s game.

 

Justin Verlander: The last pitcher to win the MVP was Dennis Eckersly in 1992. He only threw 80 innings that season. The other pitchers on Oakland’s staff pitched exactly 1367 innings that season. It’s difficult for me to understand how a pitcher who appears in about 5% of all innings that team pitched can even be the MVP of that team. Of course, Eckersly’s innings were high leverage innings, but still. So since Verlander has pitched in about 18% of Detroit’s innings, I guess he can be considered an MVP candidate. He is the only starting pitcher on the staff with an ERA under 4.50, and it’s almost HALF of 4.50. It’s fine to throw his name in the MVP race, but just give him the Cy Young. 

NL MVP

Matt Kemp: Leader in NL WAR by a wide margin. And he looks like a movie star.

Ryan Braun: MLB leader in ultimate face plants robbing him of an inside-the-park homers as well as his pride. Reggie Miller loves Ryan Braun and would vote for him if he had a vote. He’s having a legitimately good year for the Brew Crew. This may be the end of an era*, so enjoy it while you can Milwaukee fans.

*Its not really an era if you haven’t really won anything, but small market teams usually don’t have seasons like this very often and they will celebrate those seasons for years. I vividly remember the Royals’ Cinderella season where they finished 4 games above .500 in 2003. Pittsburg is going to have a parade after this season to celebrate the fact that they played meaningful baseball games in July.

Prince Fielder: Don’t look at his WAR because he’s not the best fielder or base-runner, but he can hit. He already has 102 RBI, and the voters love driving in runners. That means you are valuable because the batters ahead of you got on base a lot of times because they are valuable, so you capitalized on high odds and drove them in an average number of times leading to the high RBI number (that was supposed to be sarcasm). Oh, and Price Fielder’s expiring contract, and the value he will likely demand on the market, is why Milwaukee needs to especially enjoy this season.

AL Cy Young

Justin Verlander: The Tigers hope they get several rain-outs in the postseason so they can go with the one-man rotation.

Jered Weaver: League leader in ERA. 0.10 points lower than Verlander. He is a big reason why the Angels are still somehow in contention even though they have actually scored 15 runs less than the Orioles.

Carsten Charles Sabathia: Very similar deal to the Tigers. The Yankees are looking for some postseason rain-outs so they can just pitch Sabathia every game. I really want to see Verlander-Sabathia games 1, 2, and 3 of the ALDS. 

NL Cy Young

Clayton Kershaw: How do the Dodgers have a legitimate MVP and CY Young award winner and they are 5 games under .500? Because baseball is a team sport and there are 25 other players and Frank McCourt to add to the Dodgers’ struggles. Kershaw is awesome, though! Seriously, he leads the league in strikeouts and is second to only Johnny Cueto in ERA. What? Yes, Johnny Cueto leads all of the major leagues in ERA, and he does, in fact, have enough innings pitched to qualify for the lead. Strange major statistic leader of the year award winner: Johnny Cueto.

Roy Halladay: He’s a model of consistency. He’s got devastating stuff. He out thinks and outworks opponents. And he’s the best pitcher for the best pitching staff in baseball. The Phillies offense is ancient, but I’m excited to watch any NL team match up against the three-headed beast of Halladay-Lee-Hamels.

I’m particularly watching AL MVP and NL Cy Young. I have no clue who will win, but it should be an exciting battle this last month of the season. Keep an eye for our special rookie of the year post in the coming days. There are some very good races that I have an interest in. Just check out Hosmer’s swing. It’s a thing of beauty.

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Keep watching baseball and keep biking!