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.
GO STROS!!
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