Every year I dip my toes into the post-season awards waters. Here's one man's opinion...
Manager of the Year
NL - Bob Melvin
AL - Mike Scioscia
This award seems to usually go to the manager of the team that no one had expectations to win before the season started but my vote usually goes to the manager who had to handle the most adversity throughout the year. I figure it's a lot easier to manage when everyone is healthy and the lineup and bullpen choices were decided in spring training. In the NL though, Bob Melvin seems like a slam-dunk. The Dbacks end up leading the NL in wins and take their division despite being
outscored by their opponents over the year. The manager deserves some credit for that I say. Clint Hurdle of the Rockies seems to be the only other skipper worth even mentioning.
In the AL, I usually just ignore Francona and Torre since both teams are constructed with Monopoly money. I thought the
Hargrove/McLaren duo had a good shot to win in Seattle but they faltered big time down the stretch. I'll give my vote to
Mike Scioscia of the Angels. While the starting staff stayed mostly healthy besides Bartolo Colon, the Angels got 150+ games out of only two position players, Cabrera and Vlad, yet cruised to a division title.
Rookie of the Year
NL - Troy Tulowitzki
AL - Dustin Pedroia
I'll start with the AL on this one and it seems four candidates have been worth mentioning,
Pedroia, Brian Bannister,
Jeremy Guthrie and
Daisuke Matszuka. Trying to compare pitchers with hitters contributions is always a bit difficult, but I'll see what I can do here.
| Name |
VORP |
Win Shares |
WPA |
OPS/ERA+ |
| Dustin Pedroia |
35.9 |
19 |
0.73 |
112 |
| Jeremy Guthrie |
38.2 |
13 |
1.39 |
125 |
| Brian Bannister |
37 |
13 |
0.59 |
121 |
| Dice-K |
34.9 |
12 |
1.68 |
108 |
Pedroia's
WARP1 value was 5.3 as well. While Guthrie will likely finish 4th in the voting, he seems the be the only other one worthy of the award besides Pedroia. But take into account Pedroia's offensive and defensive contributions and he would get my vote.
The NL Rookie of the Year race though is probably the closest besides the NL MVP and it basically comes down to how much you care to factor in defense. Your nominees are
Troy Tulowitzki and
Ryan Braun.
| Name |
VORP |
Win Shares |
WPA |
OPS/ERA+ |
WARP 1 |
| Troy Tulowitzki |
57 |
25 |
2.87 |
108 |
8.5 |
| Ryan Braun |
37.8 |
22 |
4.09 |
153 |
3.9 |
Offense tends to get the most attention and Braun was a true force with the stick. The problem is he almost gave all of it back with his glove, with
The Fielding Bible saying he was a minus 41 third basemen compared to Tulowitzki being the top shortstop in the game this year at a plus 35.
I'll be back with my Cy Young and MVP picks later in the week but time to breakdown the
rumored Jacque Jones for Omar Infante trade.
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