Prospect Insider - MLB Awards

MLB Awards

By Jason A. Churchill

By 11-18-2008

I wasn't going to talk much about the Major League Baseball Awards this winter - mostly due to the childish approach the BBWAA handle the voting for them all - but I can't help but want to see what everyone else thinks about how they have gone thus far.

The Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards are a total joke (Chase Utley did NOT win the Gold Glove for National League second baseman? He's only the best defensive player at the position since Roberto Alomar was in his prime) so I will ignore those going forward, and the Manager of the Year Awards just don't mean anything to me, so I'll be pretending those don't exist, too.

National League Cy Young: Tim Lincecum, RHP - San Francisco
I can't find anything wrong with Lincecum being the winner here, though you can make a very strong case for Mets' lefty Johan Santana, who would have received my vote, if I had one, and was dumb enough to want one.

Lincecum was terrific, leading the bigs in strikeouts and sustaining strong, lengthy starts from April through September. His team wasn't very good, so his starts were less valuable, but the award is meant for the best pitcher in the league, not the most valuable.

Lincecum did walk 84 batters, but did so in 227 innings of work and batters hit just .217 off him with a .316 slugging. Yes, a .316 slugging percentage.

And it wasn't his home park that did it for him, either, Lincecum was better on the road than at AT&T Park, 2.22 versus 3.05.

I would have voted Lincecum second, but only because Santana bettered Lincecum in BB/9, and while his home park probably helped him a little more than Lincecum's, Santana faced better competition in the NL East, day-in and day-out.

The bonus for Santana's side, is that he pitched all year long while his team was contending for a playoff spot. We can't hold it against Lincecum that his team was awful, but we can sure give points to Santana for getting his numbers while pitching in much more important games.

The only real mistake here, however, is that Brandon Webb came in second, and Santana third. That's a result of the writers looking at wins before anything else. Santana had 16 in 34 starts, Webb tallied 22.

American League Cy Young: Cliff Lee, LHP - Cleveland
Absolutely no issue here, though Dayn Perry is nuts in claiming Lee should have been named the AL's MVP, too.

C'mon Dayn, he wasn't even the MVP on his team, *cough* Grady Sizemore *cough*, so how could he possibly be the MVP of the league? He might be top 10. Maybe.

I did think Ervin Santana should have been second in the Cy voting over Roy Hallday, though.

National League Most Valuable Player Albert Pujols, 1B - St. Louis
The writers got it right, surprisingly. Pujols was by far and away the most valuable player in the senior circuit in 2008, hitting .357 and leading the league in slugging.

Pujols also drew 104 walks, which by itself isn't all that wowing. But he fanned just 54 times in more than 630 plate appearances and continues to play superb defense at first.

He's unflappable and has no weaknesses. He's consistent, runs the bases well, and played all of the 2008 campaign with an elbow problem that will eventually lead to surgery.

Ryan Howard belonged nowhere in the top three, though, and Chase Utley, who is easily among the top three players in baseball, was left off far too many ballots.

I would have went Pujols-Utley-Wright, followed by Carlos Beltran, Ryan Braun, Geovany Soto, and nobody named Manny Ramirez (53 games) or C.C. Sabathia (14 games).

American League Most Valuable Player: Dustin Pedroia, 2B - Boston Red Sox
Ugh. Not that Pedroia wasn't fantastic in 2008 - .376 OBP, .493 slugging, very good defense and 20 steals in 21 attempts - but you can argue, successfully if you are any good at verbal jousting - that Pedroia, like Lee, wasn't the most valuable player on his own team.

While the value on the bases and defensively aren't quite as highly produced, Kevin Youkilis posted a .390 OBP and a .569 slugging - both better than Pedroia's, and he had his two best months of the season in August (.351/.430/.649) and September (.275/.398/.594) as his club was adjusting to life without Manny Ramirez while simultaneously holding off the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays for a playoff spot.

Furthermore, Youkilis is very solid at first base, and played well at third in place of Mike Lowell at the end of the year.

But I wouldn't have voted Youkilis the winner, either. That honor, for my taste, would have gone to Sizemore. Twins first baseman Justin Morneau and catcher Joe Mauer finished second and fourth in the voting - Youkilis third - and Sizemore ended up 10th.

Considering the way the Jake holds back power production, Sizemore's .502 slugging is even more impressive, but it's his .375 OBP, 38 steals in 43 attempts and superb defense in center field that do it for me.

I guess since the Tribe were a .500 team this year (though they finished only 7 1/2 games back), Sizemore's numbers meant less, but that doesn't explain a 10th-place finish.

What does explain it is the writers association's lack of baseball intelligence. As a whole, they simply don't understand what is valuable and what is not, clinging to wins, raw ERA, batting average and RBI - at least for the most part.

Pedroia was simply the chic pick this year, not that I necessarily think it was a bad choice, and the cattle that the BBWAA has grown to be over the last several decades followed suit.

Having said that, it does seem they hit on both Cy Young's, possibly even both MVP's, and didn't screw up the easy vote that the Rookie of the Year Awards came to be this year.

The Gold Glove Awards, are another story, and stand as the perfect example of what the BBWAA don't undeerstand.

Well, that and the fact that Francisco Rodriguez finished third in the AL Cy Young voting, and Jon Lester received fewer votes - none - than did Mike Mussina.

mlb-awards

Comments
The following 3 comment(s) for this article are shown below:

1. By: jonbbt on 11-18-2008 20:47:05
The gold gloves were definitely the worst part.

2. By: DAMellen on 11-20-2008 00:31:42
Michael Young. MICHAEL YOUNG!

3. By: DAMellen on 11-20-2008 00:34:10
Also, I thought Halladay belonged in front of Santana. I didn't love picking Pedroia, but nobody stood out this year. Maybe Sizemore. And I probably would've had Mauer ahead of Morneau.

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