The Awards Season Summary

Well its awards time and I thought we’d see how my picks stack up against the actual picks. I doubt they’ll match up too much but that’s why this is Spurious Baseball.

AL Rookie
My Choice : Huston Street, Oak
To me its not even close. While Chacin, Iguchi and ‘Tin Can’ Cano (with the bat that is) have had good seasons, Street single handedly solidified a very young bullpen which took a lot of pressure off a very young rotation and was a key figure for an over-achieving Oakland side.
MLB’s Choice : Huston Street, Oak (97 points, 15 first place votes)
A sufficiently large portion of the votes just goes to show how obvious a choice he was.

NL Rookie
My Choice : Willy Taveras, Hou
It’s a toss up between him and Howard in Philadelphia, but Taveras has had to be the igniter on a very limp offence all year and that got the Astros a wild card birth. While his numbers might not be as impressive as others, his importance is that much higher.
MLB’s Choice : Ryan Howard, Phi (109 points, 19 first place votes), Taveras (78, 7)
I still maintain that Taveras was more important to his team but its hard to argue with the guy who was up there among all rookies in most offensive/power categories.

AL Manager
My Choice : Ozzie Guillen, Chx
A lot of people want to heap praise on Eric Wedge but I picked Cleveland to win that division at the beginning of the year and the way they played in the second half of the season was how they should have been playing all year. Meanwhile, Ozzie Guillen took a team that no one picked to win the division and made them the best team in the AL.
MLB’s Choice : OzzieGuillen, Chx (105, 17)
Ozzie Guillen takes an un-fancied team all the way and gets his just reward and the only surprise to me is the size of his majority as I thought Macha and Wedge would get more support.

NL Manager
My Choice : Bobby Cox, Atl
How can it be anyone else? That team was decimated by injuries and most parts of the team not only had to refer to plan B but also plans C, D and E. This team had so many personnel problems but they still won the division with time to spare and that says so much of how good a manager Cox is.
MLB’s Choice : Bobby Cox, Atl (152, 28)
It really was a case of who else could you possibly vote for? Is there even a slight case for someone else?

AL Cy Young
My Choice : Mariano Rivera, Nyy
The first week of the season Boston roughed him up a little and then he shutdown every other team for the rest of the year. Just an unbelievable year from a guy who is really carving out his niche in baseball history.
MLB’s Choice : Bartolo Colon, LAA (118, 17), Rivera (68, 8)
They really should change this award to become the Cy Young Award for Most Wins. What’s most amazing is the size of his victory margin because while he had a good season as a real stopper for the Angels (even through injury), Johan Santana and Mariano Rivera were more dominant all year and should have at least split the vote more.
I suppose what would the off-season be without another bout of people talking about how wins are an over-rated stat?

NL Cy Young
My Choice : Chris Carpenter, StL
This guy was huge for St Louis all year. He not only ate up innings and kept his team in every game When he was matched up against other teams aces in clutch games down the stretch, he was a monster pitching complete games where he held the opposition to practically nothing.
MLB’s Choice : Chris Carpenter, StL (132, 19)
I had this guy as my third place pick in MVP voting. Just an outstanding year from a guy who’s had more than his fair share of adversity.

AL MVP
My Choice : Scott Podsednik, Chx
Yes, Ortiz carried the Sox with more clutch hits than you can shake a big stick at. Yes, A-Rod notched up some gaudy numbers but in a nutshell, with Podsednik in the line-up the ChiSox were the best team in baseball. Take him out and they start limping to the playoffs. He comes back and they’re the best team in baseball. Sounds like an MVP to me.
MLB’s Choice : Alex Rodriguez, Nyy (331, 16), David Ortiz (307, 11), Podsednik (15, 0)
Well what a surprise they give it to the sluggers. Oh well, I guess when you’re on a roster worth $200m and you stutter all year and eventually make it unconvincingly into the playoffs then someone on that team must have put forward a huge effort to make that team stutter. Oh how valuable A-Rod has been because he must be valuable because if he just put up numbers then he’d win the Hank Aaron Award instead. I mean, isn’t that what it’s there for?

NL MVP
My Choice : Albert Pujols, StL
As good as Andruw Jones was in a similar situation to Pujols (both were immense on teams with injuries to key guys in the line-up) it simply comes down to the fact that Albert was better. Right now Bonds is probably the only player who impacts how opponents play his team more than Pujols.
MLB’s Choice : Albert Pujols, StL (378, 18), Andruw Jones, Atl (351, 13)
Nice to see Pujols get the nod but also nice to see Andruw run him close. You really couldn’t argue either as both were integral to teams who endured a number of injuries to their line-ups but still managed to make it to the post-season.