Pick Your Baseball Award Winners

In My Humble Opinion
1

The thread title says it all. Here are my pix:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

MVP - No runaway choice here but my man is Vladimir Guerrero; better overall numbers than anyone except Manny Ramirez, who’s a black hole in the outfield. Guererro was red hot down the stretch, too, as Anaheim caught Chokeland. Honorable mentions to Ramirez, Santana, and Ichiro!.

CY YOUNG - Johan Santana, easily. Best ERA by a mile, while pitching more innings than anyone except Mark Buerhle (sp?). Led in strikeouts, doesn’t walk anyone, stops the running game, went 20-6. Totally dominant season; if Guerrero had has a weak September, I’d give Santana the MVP Award, too.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR - Everyone’s voting for Bobby Crosby, it seems. I thought Lew Ford was eligible; if he is, he’s the man. Otherwise I guess I’ll go with Crosby.
NATIONAL LEAGUE

MVP - Barry. The best. Carried his team on his back to the last day of the season. Without him, the Giants would have out of it months ago. Honorable mentions to the Cardinal Trifecta and Adrian Beltre.

CY YOUNG - No clear candidate here. Randy Johnson was the best, inning for inning, but can I give it to a 16-14 pitcher? Ah, sure, why not; any average pitcher would have gone 10-20 with thos 30 decisions if he had to pitch for this lousy outfit.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR - Everyone is voting for Jason Bay, who did show great power. But my man is Khalil “No, Really, I’m White” Greene, who doesn’t quite have Bay’s sock, but can hit pretty well and has a fantastic glove.

2

I go along with Santana and Guerrero in the AL, and Bonds goes almost without saying in the NL (though he’ll STILL be watching the World Series from his own personal big screen TV! Serves him right!).

But for Cy Young, even though his record isn’t 100% his fault, there’s no way I can justify giving the Cy Young award to a starter with a barely .500 record. I give Johnson some small credit for showing more gumption and decency than I thought he possessed (he totally quit on the Mariners in his last season at Seattle, and was sure he’d quit on the D’backs once it became clear they were going nowhere)… but I’d give the Cy Young to Roger Clemens.

Johnson reminded me of the NY football Giants’ defensive units of the 1970s’. Every week, the Giants would lose 13-10 or 10-6, and people would say how tragic it was that the defense played so brilliantly, but that anemic offense couldn’t score enough points to give the team a win. And there WAS truth to that. But the fact remained, that defense always played just well enough to lose. It ALWAYS gave up the big play in the clutch. And you couldn’t blame that on the offense.

Johnson always pitched just well enough to lose. In the tight games, he always gave up the extra run that his opponent didn’t. Sorry, we don’t grade the Cy Young award on a curve.

But thanks for actually TRYING this time, Randy.

3

AL:

MVP: Vlad

Cy: Santana

NL:

MVP: As big a fan as I am of the 2004 Western Division Champion Los Angeles Dodgers, it’s gotta go to Barry.

Cy: Clemons.

Haj

4

What, you think he should gather at the community TV in the village square? You’re mocking the man for having his own TV?

No picks right now, I’ll come back later after reviewing the stats.

5

That was an attempted joke, based on widespread rumors that Barry Bonds has no friends on the Giants roster, and spends all his time in a “Barry-only” section of the clubhouse where he has his own big-screen TV that nobody else is allowed to watch.

As usual, he’ll NEED his big screen TV at World Series, time, because that’s the closest he’s going to get to the action.

6

Rick, Lew Ford isn’t eligible, otherwise he’d be my pick, too.

AL MVP - Guerrero. W00+!!!

AL CY - Santana. Just steamrolled everyone in ERA and only Buerhle pitched more innings. That’s the definition of Cy Young winner right there.

AL ROY - Bobby Crosby. There’s really no one else.

AL MOY - Showalter. With the arguable exception of Bobby Cox, he’s the best manager in the game today. If I’m starting a rebuilding project, he’s the guy I want in there.

NL MVP - Bonds. Duh. If he doesn’t get it, people need to start discussing whether the BBWAA really should be the ones voting.

NL CY - It seems that the debate has boiled down to Randy Johnson or Roger Clemens. Let’s break this down Dr. Jack Ramsey Style.

Record: Johnson - 16-14
Clemens - 18-4
EDGE - Clemens

ERA: Johnson - 2.60
Clemens - 2.98
EDGE - Johnson

IP: Johnson - 245.2
Clemens - 214.1
EDGE - Johnson

Strikeouts: Johnson - 290
Clemens - 218
EDGE - Johnson

Base on Balls: Johnson - 44
Clemens - 79
EDGE - Johnson

Johnson beats Clemens silly in every single category except the one that’s most reliant on your teammates. Guess what, this isn’t a team award - it’s an individual pitcher award. And Johnson has been the best individual pitcher in the National League this year and it’s unfortunate that his team let him down, but he still deserves the NL Cy Young.

NL ROY - Gonna go with Khalil Greene. Played a lot, has some pretty good defense and was one of the best offensive SS in the NL. Although, if they give it to Bay, I won’t complain. It’s pretty close.\

NL MOY - Bobby Cox. We may need to ban the Braves.

7

American League:

MVP - Vladimir Guerrero. Not that the award should be fully dependent on your teammates, but being far and away the best player on the Angels lifts him over Sheffield or Ramirez, who had similar seasons but with lots of support.

Cy Young - Johan Santana. No question. Schilling’s second, and then who knows. Maybe Joe Nathan?

ROY - Zack Greinke should be getting more support, but Crosby still deserves it.

MOY - It’s between Showalter and Alan Trammell, whose team improved by more than thirty games. Trammell gets the nod for not committing ritual suicide in the off-season.

National League:

MVP - Bonds.

Cy Young - Randy Johnson, for all the reasons Neurotik mentioned. I’d be tempted to put Jake Peavy, with his 2.27 ERA, second.

ROY - Jason Bay, whose offensive production makes up for Greene’s defense.

MOY - Bobby Cox. Jaret Wright? John Thomson? Cox and Leo Mazzone have obviously made an unholy alliance with someone or other.

8

I got the joke. I think that most of us did.

Kyla is just kind of cranky right now for some reason :stuck_out_tongue:

Haj

9

I got the joke too, but I thought it was pretty lame and a cheap dig, considering Barry’s not going to be watching TV from the locker room. He has a house.

10

Let’s throw a few more stats in there (Ah, stats. Where the baseball geeks are truly at home).

Batting Average Against: Johnson - .197
Clemens - .217

On Base Percentage: Johnson - .240
Clemens - .289

OPS: Johnson - .555
Clemens - .618

Quality Starts: Johnson - 26
Clemens - 23

Complete Games: Johnson - 4
Clemens - 0

And how did their respective teams do behind them?

Run support: Johnson - 3.99
Clemens - 4.79

Errors: Arizona - 139
Houston - 101

And how did Arizona’s Porous defense affect the outcomes?

Unearned Runs Allowed by Defense while pitching (my own stat- Total Runs minus Earned runs) :Johnson - 17
Clemens - 5

Clemens had a very good season. But Johnson dominated opposing batters. The fact that he managed to get above .500 at all is nothing short of astounding.

11

You want a season where one pitcher has an amazing year with a last place club. Check out Steve Calrton’s 1972 season with the Phillies.

This year

NL -

MVP – Bonds.
Cy – Clemens. With a tip of the hat to Johnson.
ROY – Bay
MOY – Cox

AL –

MVP – Sheffield.
Cy – Santana
ROY – Crosby
MOY – Schowalter. Trammell deserves some votes too.

12

As usual, it’s tough to find fault with RickJay’s opinions on matters related to baseball.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

MVP - Gotta go with Vladimir Guerrero here as well.

CY YOUNG - Johan Santana

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR - Bobby Crosby.

MANAGER OF THE YEAR - Tough choice between Showalter and Trammell. Just to be a bit different, I suppose I’ll go with Trammell – you gotta give some respect to a guy that manages one of the largest year-over-year improvements in winning percentage ever, especially when you consider that Carlos Guillen and Pudge Rodriguez were the main impact additions to the club – otherwise it’s essentially the same team that went 43-119 last year.
NATIONAL LEAGUE

MVP - Barry Bonds. Shouldn’t even be a question. On a planet with no Barry, you’d have a hard time making a case against Beltre, especially given how crucial he’s been to what the Dodgers have done; as good as the Three Redbirds are, the Cardinals would have managed without any one of them far better than either the Giants or Dodgers sans Bonds or Beltre.

CY YOUNG - Somebody has to win it, but you can make a strong case against any of the leading candidates. I guess Randy Johnson, but I hope this is the last time.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR - Khalil Greene. I think he’ll beat out Bay more handily than you expect, Rick.

MANAGER OF THE YEAR - Bobby Cox. He’s overdue for another one, and you have to regard the job he did this year as one of the most masterful of all time. Game-time tactical maneuvers are the least part of the job, and only account for a pitifully small number of runs gained/lost in any given year. But as always, Bobby made sure every player on the Braves team knew what was expected of him, ensured that what was expected was something that player was capable of delivering, and then refused to panic, remaining calm and assured even when the team was below .500 and in fourth place in June. This was far from the most talented collection of Braves of the last 13 years, but they gave all they had (which in the case of guys like Charles Thomas and Nick Green and even Dewayne Wise, was probably more than they knew they had), remained positive, and got the job done. I respect what LaRussa’s done this year, but the Cardinals were a surprise only because the expectations for their pitching staff were so low going into the year – once it became obvious that Carpenter, Morris, Marquis, *et al. * could do the job, it was a cakewalk from June on.

13

NL MVP: Bonds
NL CY: Johnson
NL ROY: Wright
NL MOY: Cox

AL MVP: Tejada - hey had to be different. 150 RBIs is amazing on such a bad team.
AL CY: Santana
AL ROY: Crosby
AL MOY: Showalter

14

I didn’t remember to do Manager of the Year.

I guess I can’t argue with Cox and Showalter. Every year they say the Braves are cooked, and every year Cox gets 95, 100 wins out of whoever happens to show up to spring training.