It's Award Time Baby!

Sadly, my favorite sport's regular season is wrapping up. Sadly sadly, my Minnesota Twins are nowhere near the postseason, so I have to do something to pass the time. So here are my award picks for this season. I will not pick the Manager of the Year award, because that award is pointless. This might get a little nerdy, but it's my damn blog so deal with it.


AL MVP:


1. Mookie Betts
2. Jose Ramirez
3. J.D. Martinez
4. Mike Trout
5. Alex Bregman


The top spot is a no brainer really. Mookie Betts has been freaking fantastic on both sides of the ball. The dude is leading the league in batting average and slugging percentage, and his amazing defense has helped him collect a 10.7 WAR (according to Baseball-Reference) which is the best in baseball. All of these guys on this list have had spectacular seasons, but Betts is the best player this year on the best team. It's a pretty obvious pick.


NL MVP:


1. Christian Yelich
2. Javy Baez
3. Nolan Arenado
4. Freddie Freeman
5. Lorenzo Cain


This one isn't as obvious. The NL is more pitcher-dominated than the AL. I'm kind of a stickler for the MVP to go to a position player, so I don't consider pitchers for this award. It's close between Yelich and Baez, but you can't argue with that .321/.391/.576 slash line for Yelich. The man who looks like Pete Davidson from SNL is leading the league in batting average, slugging, OPS, and OPS+, so I'm giving him the nod.


AL Cy Young:


1. Blake Snell
2. Justin Verlander
3. Chris Sale
4. Corey Kluber
5. Trevor Bauer


Blake Snell is having a stupid season. I don't care about the W-L record for starting pitchers at all because it's a useless stat. But all the other stuff, including a league-leading 1.90 ERA and a 7.0 WAR shows that Snell deserves the award. But man, this is a loaded field of talented pitchers, and players like Gerrit Cole and Edwin Diaz didn't even crack the top 5.


NL Cy Young:


1. Jacob deGrom
2. Max Scherzer
3. Aaron Nola
4. Zack Greinke
5. Kyle Feeland


This is really a 3 horse race, but deGrom deserves this award. If he gets punished by not having enough wins (which isn't his fault because he plays on the crappy Mets) I will find each writer who voted for someone else, track them down and give them a stern talking to. The dude is leading the league in ERA, ERA+, FIP, and HR/9 while striking out 11.2 batters per 9 innings. That's insane, and while Scherzer and Nola have had great seasons, they don't compare to deGrom. Please voters, do the right thing. Or don't, but be prepared to be talked to by a passive-aggressive Minnesotan.

AL Rookie of the Year:


1. Shohei Ohtani
2. Miguel Andujar
3. Joey Wendle


Ohtani is doing some unbelievable things. Yes he's not pitching anymore, but his 3.31 ERA over 10 starts still counts this season. Then you add in the fact that he's still swinging it well since coming back from injury (21 homeruns with a .925 OPS over the whole season) while Andujar is slowing down, it make sense to award Ohtani for his breakthrough season.


NL Rookie of the Year:


1. Ronald Acuna Jr.
2. Juan Soto
3. Harrison Bader


The rookie class is led by two players who can't even drink yet. While Soto is putting together an unbelievable season as a 19 year-old (I didn't even wear matching socks when I was 19) you have to give the nod to Acuna Jr. The 20 year-old has a .926 OPS with 26 homeruns and above average defense. He is the real deal, and I'm pumped to watch him even after he starts crushing beer.


Surprisingly on this terrible Minnesota Twins team, there are no players who deserve award recognition. Crazy how that works out.

More of the Same

Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

Man, this franchise just can't get out of its own way.

The Athletic (which if you're a Wolves fan and you're not following Jon Krawczynski you're doing it wrong) was the first to report that Jimmy Butler is asking to be traded away from the Timberwolves just days before the franchise's media day, and just a few weeks before training camp.

So to recap, it's been a little more than a year since the Wolves got Butler from the Chicago Bulls. Minnesota shipped youngsters Kris Dunn, Zach LaVine, and the draft pick that turned into Lauri Markkanen. Those are three pretty promising players with upside. In return, the Wolves got 59 (very good) games from Butler and one game of Chicago's draft pick Justin Patton, who is now dealing with another serious injury. The Wolves got to the playoffs for the first time in I think 40 years, but they were quickly disposed of by the Houston Rockets in 5 games.

It looked like the writing was on the wall, as there's been multiple reports for months now about a disconnect between Butler and the Wolves young superstar Karl-Anthony Towns. KAT also hasn't signed his rookie max extension, which many consider a simple step for a young player, but not for this franchise. Shams Charania reported that Towns wouldn't sign an extension until the Butler situation was resolved. Well, it looks like it might be resolved soon.

This is just another problem for a floundering franchise. I could list all the issues, but my hands would get tired from typing everything. We'll see how this all plays out in upcoming weeks, but I'm sure it will end up terrible just like everything else Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Dark Side Of Fandom

(Photo: Jeff Hanisch, USA TODAY Sports)

Sometimes it's embarrassing to be a fan. Look, I get that it was frustrating to watch Daniel Carlson be bad at his job, but the amount of vitriol he's been getting over the past 24 hours is ridiculous. We have all been bad at our jobs (in my case, more bad days than good days) but we don't have millions of people watch us struggle. Carlson, who I'm like 98 percent sure didn't want to miss those kicks, is being treated like he murdered a bunch of puppies. The poor kid has a Twitter account, and this is the post he made on September 11th:

To which "fans" wrote out these responses. Fair warning, bad language coming up, and I'm not even posting the worst stuff.

I'm obsessed about sports more than pretty much anything, but I've never understood personally attacking someone because they don't do their jobs up to your standards.

Carlson was waived today by the Vikings. Imagine yourself as a kid right out of college, and you get fired from your first professional job just months into your career. I understand he made more money than most of us dream of, but think about how heartbreaking that would be for a person who is trying to establish themselves in their field. I'm sure Carlson is at a low point right now in his life, and having to be harassed and verbally attacked is only making that low point lower.

Remember folks, this is just a game that has no real meaning on the world. Go ahead and wear your jerseys, cheer loud, hate the Packers, and boo the refs. However, let's be civil about this and remember these are real people with real emotions. Be nice to each other ok? Thanks.