My top 3 picks in the order I would vote for them. Let me know what you think.
NL MVP: Ryne Howard of Phillies, Beltran of the Mets and Pujols of the Cards.
AL MVP: Derek Jeter of the Yankees, Jermaine Dye of WhiteSox and Justin Morneau of the Twins
NL Cy Young: Tough one, no standouts: I lean towards Chris Carpenter of the Cards, Josh Johnson of the Marlins and Brad Penny of the Dodgers for having 15 wins so far. Not a great class.
AL Cy Young: Johan Santana of the Twins is leading the majors in every important stat, I have only one choice to provide.
Rookie of the Year:
NL RoY: Josh Johnson of the Marlins who just pitched a no-hitter, Hanley Ramirez of the Marlins and anyone got a third choice, I am basically an AL fan.
AL RoY: Justin Verlander of the Tigers, Jonathan Papelbon of the Red Sox and Francisco Liriano of the Twins.
Manager of the Year:
NL: Willie Randolph of the Mets, Joe Girardi of the Marlins and Bob Melvin of the Padres
AL: Jim Leyland of Detroit, Joe Torre of the Yanks and Ron Gardenhire of the Twins
NL MVP
Albert Pujols, StL
Miguel Cabrera, Fla
Carlos Beltran, NYM
(I think Howard just has HRs going for him)
AL MVP
Jermaine Dye, Chi
Travis Hafner, Cle
Joe Mauer, Min
(Jeter will probably win anyway because he’s a Yankee)
NL Cy Young
Scott Carpenter, StL
John Johnson, Fla
(I agree there’s no stand out - It will depend on who has the best September)
AL Cy Young
Johan Santana, Min
Roy Halladay, Tor
(don’t really know the AL)
NL Rookie of the Year:
Hanley Ramirez, Fla
Dan Uggla, Fla
Josh Johnson, Fla
(this is my Marlins bias showing - I also hear Prince Fielder mentioned as a candidate)
AL Rookie:
don’t really follow
NL Manager of the Year:
Who ever wins the Wild Card will have to put up a great month. I’d give it to the manager of the team that wins: either
Joe Girardi, Fla
Bob Melvin, SD or
Charlie Manuel, Phi
AL Manager of the Year:
Your choices are good:
Jim Leyland, Det
Joe Torre, NY
Ron Gardenhire. Min
AL MVP: This would go to David Ortiz for sure if Boston hadn’t collapsed. If they were to come back somehow he would win it, assuming he plays the rest of the year, but if not it’s quite a toss-up. Assuming they don’t come back, and that’s very probable, he won’t win it. I would vote for Joe Mauer, Derek Jeter or Dye. Dye will win for sure if Chicago makes it, and is likely to win if they don’t.
NL MVP: Unless Philadelphia totally falls apart Howard will win it. As impressive as he is he does not deserve to win, and may end up one of the worst MVP choices ever; I know he’s great but Beltran and Pujols are better.
If Philly finishes well out it’ll go to Beltran, and it should.
AL Cy Young: Santana at this point, no sweat. Halladay has time to catch up, but as of today it’s Johan.
NL Cy Young: Carpenter again. As a Blue Jay fan I am just so happy our genius GM let Carpenter go for nothing. But we have Josh Towers!
AL Rookie: Verlander will win it, and I suppose he’s as deserving as anyone.
NL Rookie: Honestly, how do the Marlins do it? Pick a Marlin. Uggla I guess.
Eeek… And those are the four pitchers NOT named “Dontrelle Willis”, and is just a numerical quantification of why this here Mets fan would prefer that the Marlins not sneak into the playoffs, where their potent set of young arms can suddenly make the 182-game regular season irrelevant in a 5- or 7-game series… Especially when matched up against aging ace pitchers on the Other Side Of The Hill. Forget the Dodgers, Cards, Padres or Reds… The Young Fish are the most dangerous roadblock for the Mets in terms of them reaching the World Series this year.
In my book, Joe Girardi should clearly be the Manager of the Year, and it’s a crying shame that he’s somehow on the outs with Jeffrey Loria (not to mention being one of the worst stadium draws in baseball). The Marlins are a great story, who’d a thunk they’d come all the way back from 20 games under .500 before June to tied for second in the division and 1 game out of the Wild Card with a team almost completely staffed with players still not even arbitration eligible (plus Dontrelle Willis) and an All-Star “Rule V” pickup?
Even if they fall short this year (say, because the Mets take 5 of the remaining 7 games against them in September, oh please oh please), they’ll still have surpassed anybody’s expectations by a wild margin, and will be primed to be very dangerous in the coming years if all those young arms stay healthy.
As great a job as I think Willie has done in New York, he shares a good part of the credit for the team’s turnaround with Minaya, who not only picked up key veterans in Delgado and Billy Wagner, but more importantly is batting way over .500 in the castoff pickup department: Jose Valentin, John “the throw-in” Maine, Endy Chavez and even Dave Williams have all been significant contributors.
But to answer the OP, my votes would be (using “most indispensible contributor to the team’s success” as the benchmark for MVP-ness):
NL Manager of the Year: Joe Girardi, Willie Randolph, Bruce Bochy.
AL Manager of the Year: Jim Leyland, Ron Gardenhire, Joe Torre.
NL MVP: Ryan Howard, Carlos Beltran, Albert Pujols. It’s hard to imagine a better year than the one Carlos has turned in for the Mets, but he’s been “only” the chief component of a powerful offense with at least three position players driving in over 100 RBI and is running away with the best record in the league. Howard, on the other hand, is practically single-handedly keeping the Phillies relevant, with a simply monstrous year, in just his sophomore season.
AL MVP: Joe Mauer, Jermaine Dye, David Ortiz. It’s incredible what Mauer has done this year as a catcher, and if the Twins make the playoffs he’s the key position player why. (Liriano would be another one, but since there’s a Cy Young/RoY award available to offer him, it seems only fair to give Mauer the nod on the MVP.)
If the Sox hadn’t “rolled over like their shirts were on fire” following the All-Star break, (as Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe put it), Ortiz would have a much better case, even as a DH. I considered putting Jeter ahead of him but when you get down to it, leading the league in both HR and RBI while missing time on the DL ought to count for at least honorable mention (see Albert Pujols). Also, similar to the dilution factor I applied to Beltran, Jeter has been the heart of the reason but not the majority reason his team’s offense has been as good as it has been.
NL Cy Young: Brandon Webb, Roy Oswalt, Josh Johnson AL Cy Young: Johan Santana, Justin Verlander, Roy Halladay
NL RoY: Josh Johnson, Prince Fielder, Dan Uggla/Ryan Zimmerman
Basically I think Josh Johnson should be a shoo-in. He’s far and away the most impressive rookie in the National League this year.
** AL RoY**: Francisco Liriano, Justin Verlander, Jonathan Papelbon
Funny how they’re all pitchers, eh?
Johan Santana is the obvious choice for AL Cy Young. After that, the choices aren’t as easy.
Chris Carpenter is probably the best choice for NL Cy Young.
Albert Pujols is such a safe choice for NL MVP… but he’s probably the right choice, too.
That leaves AL MVP… where a lot of perfectably respectable candidates will have no chance at all if they don’t make the playoffs. Is that fair? Not entirely, but David Ortiz would have been a shoo-in if the Bosox stayed in 1st, and he’ll probably have no chance if they don’t grab that last wild card. Jermaine Dye is in a similar spot- he probably wins the award if the White Sox are in and the Red Sox aren’t.
As a Yankee fan, part of me would love to see Derek Jeter get the MVP, but it would feel more like a lifetime achievement award than a reward for being the best player in 2006.
So who do I pick? Hmm… despite my hatred for the Red Sox and my unease at giving a major award to a DH. I think I’d give Big Papi the award, even if the Red Sox don’t make the playoffs. I mean, if they miss out, it sure won’t be Ortiz’s fault.
BTW… I’m not picking Ryan Howard as MVP, but I’d love to hear a more detailed explanation from RickJay as to why he’s a terrible choice for MVP, let alone one of the worst choices ever. I think Pujols is a better choice, but Ryan Howard just doesn’t offend my sense of justice. Should he?
I’ll grant that I have a pretty serious bias here, and I’m not much of a stats guy, but I find it hard to believe that none of you have mentioned Andre Ethier for NL Rookie of the Year.
I follow most of the baseball threads and respect a lot of you regular contributors, so please tell me why you don’t think he belongs in the running, if you would.
I’ve got a great excuse, I admitted I was fairly clueless on NL Rookie of the Year candidates.
Please, make your case for him over the various Marlin’s candidates. It would add to our knowledge.
I lurve Albert (I have a holographic poster of him in my classroom), but I don’t get how the MVP needs to be on a good team. To me, the MVP is the person you’d pick to start a team with in your fantasy world, if he were guaranteed to have the performance he just turned in. I know that includes fielding, leadership, and “intangibles”, but if Howard is worth 10 games more than the flunky who would have been in his place otherwise, and is the only reason his team doesn’t suck, then isn’t that the point? I don’t think my opinion is worth that much, but if you’d rather have Howard’s 2006 season for your team than Pujols’, doesn’t that make him the MVP?
To be honest, that’s a good question; Ethier has been awesome. However, he didn’t start the year a regular, so he’s way behind a lot of the major candidates in playing time.
By way of comparison, Ethier has 404 plate appearances (as of 8 Sept) - Dan Uggla has 580. Hanley Ramirez has 598. Combined with the fact that middle infielders have far more defensive value - Ethier is a decent enough glove man in the outfield but he’s not exactly Devon White - either Ramirez or Uggla has clearly had a much more impressive season.
Actually, the Florida Marlins have the most impressive one-year stock of rookies in the history of baseball.
It’s fine to say the guys on the division leaders deserve it over Howard, but I’d also like to hear how a guy with a Post All-Star line of .356/ .492 / .799, on a team that at least is fighting for a playoff spot, would be such a historically terrible MVP pick. He’s a runaway Triple Crown winner since the break (and damn near in both leagues), they’re walking him with nobody on base in the bottom of the 9th in a tie game, oh, and he leads the majors in HR and RBI by a wide margin. I’m really hard-pressed to come up with a reason why Beltran, especially, has had a better season in any respect.
You folks who pick WIllie Randolph for NL MOTY, are you looking to get pitted? Because I’ll do it, if that’s what you really want.
Randolph is dumb as ant two rocks you could name. Sure, his team is winning but not because of any move he’s made or not made. He came into the job utterly unprepared to manage on a MLB level, and he hasn’t yet demonstrated that he’s learned a single thing about such basics as when to pinch-hit for the pitcher, when to doubleswitch, when to warm up a reliever, etc.–your basic building-blocks-of-MLB-life stuff. He’s a dumb, ornery shit-head who compounds his problems with learning how to manage by also being a defensive little prick when asked politely about his decisions by reporters. He’s probably the tenth- or twelfth-best manager in the National League–do you doubt that the Mets would have won almost as many games as they have if you, or your cocker spaniel, had been appointed Mets manager in the spring?
As to Jeter for AL MVP–I’ve heard the “It’s not a lifetime achievement award” which argument has its merits, but OTOH, there no clear choice for AL MVP and he’s having a terrific year. I’m not a fan of his, and I don’t have a problem if someone else gets the award, but I’m fine with him winning it, too. In the absence of a compelling candidate, I’m willing to let “great career” and “great career without winning an MVP awrd” decide this year’s MVP.
Funny in the other active baseball thread, I just told **Anyrose ** how I moved Girardi over Randalph based on this thread. But it is hard to argue with the best record in baseball after years of futility. He must be doing something right. I do not watch the Mets except rarely however, so I cannot debate the field decisions he makes.
Deeeee-fense, for one. Howard has basically negligible defensive value; he’s a first baseman and not terribly good at it. Beltran is a sensational defensive outfielder.
Beltran isn’t really much different from Howard on the offensive side of the house; his OBP and SLG are a bit behind, but that’s partially made up by the difference in ballparks (Citizen’s Bank Ballpark is a very good hitter’s park) and Beltran is a much better baserunner. Throwing in the glovework, I think Beltran’s a lot better, really.
Speaking as a Twins fan, I have to say that this talk of Joe Mauer as AL MVP is way off base. He’s hitting .345, with 11 HR and 76 RBI. He’s had a very good year and is now a premier catcher, but those are not MVP numers.
On the other hand, Justin Morneau is hitting .317 with 33HR and 115 RBI. If anyone on this team deserves MVP consideration, it’s Morneau.
Yep, he is third on my list and I would put him second if the Twins beat the White Sox for the Wild Card. See the Op. However, I understand people giving extra credit to a Catcher, Shortstop or Second Baseman.
Mauer is a terrific defensive catcher, which makes a huge, huge difference. The difference between a reall good defensive catcher and an ordinary first baseman is really quite considerable.
However, his numbers have been slipping almost on a nightly basis of late, so that’s changing the landscape of the MVP vote.
Ryan Howard note: Two more blasts today in a huge, huge victory against the Marlins, driving in all 3 Phillie runs in a 3-2 win. He earned a few MVP votes there. Up to 56 homers. Wow.
As a general statement, I’d certainly agree. In terms of MVP voting, I’m not so sure. Given these standards, I’d think that Jorge Posada would be worthy of consideration. I never hear anyone mention his name as a candidate though.
I’ll be happy to come back here and eat my words later if I have to. But even if the Twins make the playoffs, Joe Mauer won’t crack the top five in the MVP voting. Regardless of how the rest of the season plays out, I just can’t see him ahead of Ortiz, Dye, Jeter, Hafner or Morneau.