NL MVP- Tim Lincecum, SFG
Honorable Mention: Chase Utley, Albert Pujols, Dan Haren, Hanley Ramirez
NL Cy Young- Tim Lincecum, SFG
Honorable Mention: Dan Haren, Javier Vazquez
AL MVP- Zack Greinke, KCR
Honorable Mention: Ben Zobrist, Roy Halladay, Joe Mauer, Justin Verlander
AL Cy Young- Zack Greinke, KCR
Honorable Mention: Roy Halladay, Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez
NL Hank Aaron- Albert Pujols, STL
Honorable Mention: Prince Fielder, Chase Utley, Hanley Ramirez
AL Hank Aaron- Justin Morneau, MIN
Honorable Mention: Joe Mauer, Ben Zobrist, Kevin Youkilis
NL Reliever of the Year- Jonathan Broxton, LAD
Honorable Mention: Rafael Soriano, Brian Wilson, Heath Bell
AL Reliever of the Year- Joe Nathan, MIN
Honorable Mention: J.P. Howell, David Aardsma, Andrew Bailey
NL Rookie of the Year- Colby Rasmus, STL
Honorable Mention: Andrew McCutchen, Randy Wells, J.A. Happ, Seth Smith
AL Rookie of the Year- Brad Bergesen, BAL
Honorable Mention: Brett Gardner, Andrew Bailey, Rickey Romero, Elvis Andrus
NL Least Valuable Position Player- Jeff Francoeur, NYM
Dishonorable Mention: Willy Taveras, Emilio Bonifacio, Daniel Murphy
AL Least Valuable Position Player- Vernon Wells, TOR
Dishonorable Mention: Jason Giambi, Aubrey Huff, Magglio Ordonez
NL Cy Yuk- Braden Looper, MIL
Dishonorable Mention: Jeff Suppan, Todd Wellemeyer, Bronson Arroyo
AL Cy Yuk- Trevor Cahill, OAK
Dishonorable Mention: Jeremy Guthrie, Joe Saunders, Armando Galarraga
-NL Gold Gloves-
P- Aaron Cook, COL
C- Bengie Molina, SFG
1B- Travis Ishikawa, SFG
2B- Felipe Lopez, MIL
3B- Ryan Zimmerman, WAS
SS- J.J. Hardy, MIL
OF- Nyjer Morgan, WAS
OF- Colby Rasmus, STL
OF- Brett Carroll, FLO
-AL Gold Gloves-
P- Brad Berguson, BAL
C- Jason Varitek, BOS
1B- Kevin Youkilis, BOS
2B- Ben Zobrist, TBR
3B- Joe Creded, MIN
SS- Jack Wilson, PIT
OF- David DeJesus, KCR
OF- Franklin Gutierrez, SEA
OF- Ryan Sweeney, OAK
-NL Silver Sluggers-
P- Mike Hampton, HOU
C- Brian McCann, ATL
1B- Albert Pujols, STL
2B- Chase Utley, PHI
3B- Mark Reynolds, ARI
SS- Hanley Ramirez, FLO
OF- Ryan Braun, MIL
OF- Raul Ibanez, PHI
OF- Adam Dunn, WAS
-AL Silver Sluggers-
C- Joe Mauer, MIN
1B- Justin Morneau, MIN
2B- Aaron Hill, TOR
3B- Kevin Youkilis, BOS
SS- Derek Jeter, NYY
OF- Shin Soo Choo, CLE
OF- Carl Crawford, TBR
OF- Bobby Abreu, LAA
DH- Adam Lind, TOR
Posts
4 comments:
1. Maybe you live in Boston but I can't see how Dustin Pedroia would be considered for a Silver Slugger by anyone outside of Boston when Aaron Hill's numbers are taken into consideration. You would laugh if I said Maicer Izturis deserved the Silver Slugger, yet his and Pedroia's numbers are pretty much identical.
2. Greinke has had a great year, for sure. But to consider him the AL MVP is pretty crazy. One could argue he doesn't even deserve the Cy Young at this point. Justin Verlander and Roy Halladay should be strongly considered, as you did, and some think they deserve the Cy Young over Greinke. Verlander has more K's, a better record, but a worse ERA. Either way, there are much better MVP Candidates in position players (Morneau, Mauer, Cabrera, Teixeira, etc).
3. Brad Bergesen
4. Jason Varitek Gold Glove? You do realize that Varitek is 13 for 93 throwing out runners right? He has allowed more steals than any other catcher in the AL while only throwing out 13 runners! Go ahead and look at Gerald Laird, for comparison. Laird has thrown out 24 of 55 runners. 31 Stolen Bases, 24 Caught Stealing. These are spectacular throwing statistics. Meanwhile, Laird is pacing his pitching staff to the AL's second best ERA. The suggestion that Varitek deserves a Gold Glove is the most ridiculous thing on your mid-season report. The Gold Glove is a notoriously biased award and usually goes to name over performance, but Laird is running away with it.
1. You got me there. I'm not really sure what happened, I guess I just somehow overlooked Aaron Hill. There's a specific leaderboard I tend to put a lot of stock in when looking at offensive statistics, and I thought that Pedroia was atop the AL second basemen list. However, sure enough, I just looked and Aaron Hill is leading all AL second basemen. It's my own fault for not looking into it more closely.
Although, that being said, it's definitely a lot closer than you would make it out to be. Because of Pedroia's significant lead in OBP (.372 to .331), he hasn't been that less valuable. He is only three points behind in WOBA and six points behind in EQA. If I had to take a guess I'd say that Pedroia surpasses Hill by season's end. For now I'll obviously concede and admit I was wrong. Thanks for the heads up. It has since been corrected.
2. Zack Greinke leads the American League in the following categories: ERA, ERA+, HR/9, tRA, tRA+, VORP, FIP, RAR, and WAR. He is also tied for first with five complete games and two shutouts. He's second in K's and K/BB, third in K/9, and fourth in WHIP. Win/Loss records is probably the absolute worst way to determine a pitcher's value (ie: Cliff Lee). Perhaps you already know that, but since you cited it in your post I thought I should at least address it.
I would usually give the MVP edge to a position player if the production was close, but this is certainly not the case. The players you mentioned (Morneau, Mauer, Cabrera, Teixeira) are not remotely within Greinke's range in either WAR or WARP1. Mauer is the closest because of positional value, but the others are first basemen who provide little positional value--especially considering the fact that none of them have an OPS+ of 160. I know that's just one stat, but if a first basemen is to win the MVP, he better have absolutely amazing offensive numbers and/or play unbelievably good defense. None of the aforementioned players are doing that this season.
At this point, I definitely stand by my pick for Greinke as AL MVP. I could see Mauer passing him up by season's end, though.
3. Not really sure what the big gripe here is. I'll go ahead and list some stats for ya:
3.43 ERA
134 ERA+
1.28 WHIP
0.80 HR/9
2.39 BB/9
2.3 WAR
There's not a whole lot of rookies in baseball that can beat those numbers. If you find one in the American League that can (especially the WAR), then you'll have an argument.
4. Like I've said before, there's not a whole lot of data that can help us out as far as defensive catching statistics go. However, you need to remember that you're citing one statistic: stolen bases. Stolen bases have an extremely large part to do with the pitcher. I'm not sure if you've ever had the displeasure of watching Brad Penny hold runners on; suffice to say, he is very, very bad at it. There have been 21 stolen bases against him alone, which is the most in baseball. You also have guys like Josh Beckett, Jonathan Papelbon, and Manny Delcarmen who provide almost no help either as far as keeping a runner at bay (these five pitchers make up the majority of the successful attempts against Varitek).
It's not a coincidence that guys like Jon Lester and Justin Masterson have low SB success rates against them. They are good at holding runners on. Penalizing a catcher for something that is largely out of his control doesn't seem fair to me. I can understand your gripes about it, but until there's better evidence to suggest otherwise, I'll side with Bill James (which ranks him first among pitcher handling) Fangraphs (ranks first among AL catchers in RF/9, RF/G, Fielding %, etc.) and the Hardball Times (ranks first in WP+PB/G).
So, if you were making a team for 2009 (knowing their 2009 #s), you'd take Tim Lincecum/Greinke over Pujol/Mauer?
At the time I wrote this, yes.
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