Trout and Bryant Win MVP Award

The Most Valuable Player award was first given out in 1911 to Ty Cobb of the American League and Frank Schulte of the National League. Originally known as the Chalmers award, named after Hugh Chalmers, the award didn’t catch on as well as had been hoped, and therefore was discontinued after the 1914 season.

In 1922 the League Awards were established to honor the baseball player in the American League (National League began being recognized in 1924) who provided the greatest all-around service to their club. The winner — who received a medal and cash for winning — was voted on by a committee of eight baseball writers, with a player not being able to win more than once. Like the Chalmers awards, these awards didn’t last long, stopping in 1929.

Finally in 1931 the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Most Valuable Player award was established, which is the award still given out today.

Voting for the award is fairly straightforward.

Two writers from each city of both the American League and National League make up the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) voters for the Most Valuable Player award, making a total of thirty voters for each league (fifteen teams, with two voters per city). A first place vote earns a player fourteen points, a second place vote gets nine points, a third place vote receives eight points, a fourth place vote is worth seven points, and so on, all the way until tenth place for one point. Once added up, the player with the highest overall total wins.

There is no specific criteria for the voters to use when choosing the Most Valuable Player, but some suggested attributes include value of a player to his team (strength of offense and defense), number of games played, and a player’s overall character, disposition, loyalty and effort.

The 2016 Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player award winners for both the American League and National League were announced Thursday night on MLB Network. Here are the winners, along with my thoughts on each:

AMERICAN LEAGUE MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

Original Pick: David Ortiz

Finalists: Mike Trout, Mookie Betts and Jose Altuve

Winner: Mike Trout

Thoughts On Mike Trout Winning

Although I had David Ortiz winning the award in my original predictions, I knew in my heart that it was a long shot, as he wasn’t even among the finalists when they were revealed. With that said, however, I can’t argue with Mike Trout taking home the honor, picking up the second MVP award of his young career.

With his second MVP (his first came in 2014), Trout has now finished first or second in MVP voting for each of the full five seasons of his career to this point, joining Barry Bonds as the only other player to finish in the top two for five straight seasons. With his 29 home runs and 30 stolen bases, Trout also finished just one homer shy of becoming the first player ever to record two 30-30 seasons before age 25.

Trout won the MVP by a fairly large margin, earing 19 first place votes and 356 points, beating out Mookie Betts and his 31 homers, earning him 9 first place votes, good for 311 points, with the .338 hitter Jose Altuve coming in third, with 227 points, despite no first place votes. (The other two first place votes went to David Ortiz and Adrian Beltre, getting one apiece).

With the MVP award win, Trout looks to have all the makings of a Hall of Famer, beating the odds by winning the award on a losing team, which has proven to be no easy task in recent voting history.

Despite being in the majors for such a short time, when you’re as good as Mike Trout is, many more MVP wins being in the future is nearly a guarantee.

NATIONAL LEAGUE MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

Original Pick: Kris Bryant

Finalists: Kris Bryant, Daniel Murphy and Corey Seager

Winner: Kris Bryant

Thoughts On Kris Bryant Winning

The American League MVP award went to a player who had already won an MVP in his career, being Mike Trout, but the National League portion was guaranteed to go to a player to never win the hardware. With Kris Bryant, Daniel Murphy and Corey Seager all being in their first time in the running, history was sure to be made.

With that said, the voting wasn’t close. Bryant took home the MVP, doing so on the strength of 415 points and all but one of the first place votes. Coming after picking up the 2015 Rookie of the Year award in unanimous fashion, Bryant becomes the fourth player to win the MVP the season after winning R.O.Y., joining Cal Ripken Jr., Ryan Howard and Dustin Pedroia.

Finishing in second place was Murphy, who received the other first place vote, totaling 245 points, with Seager getting 240 points and placing third. While the majority of the baseball world felt confident that Bryant would win the award, I’m not sure anyone thought it would be by a whopping 170 points, truly showing just how great of a season he had.

Bryant blasted 39 homers this season to go along with his 102 RBI’s and 121 runs scored, marking off his season in the ultimate way, after helping the Cubs win their first World Series title in 108 years. Although Murphy’s .347 average to go along with 25 homers and Seager’s 26 home run rookie campaign were great, it was Bryant who was head and shoulders above the rest.

With the Cubs finally seeming relevant once again, and Bryant breaking out as one of the game’s top superstars, Bryant should continue to be in the running for MVP in the foreseeable future.

Porcello and Scherzer Win Cy Young Award

The Cy Young award — named after the Hall of Fame pitcher who died in 1955 — was first handed out in 1956 to Don Newcombe, with the goal of recognizing the “most valuable pitcher” from each season. The first eleven years of the award saw one pitcher per year receiving the honor, but in 1967 the Cy Young began being handed out to a pitcher from each league who was voted on as the best from the season.

Voting for the award is fairly straightforward.

Two writers from each city of both the American League and National League make up the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) voters for the Cy Young award, making a total of thirty voters for each league (fifteen teams, with two voters per city). A first place vote earns a player seven points, a second place vote gets four points, a third place vote receives three points, a fourth place vote is worth two points, with a fifth place vote earning a single point. Once added up, the player with the highest overall total wins.

The 2016 Major League Baseball Cy Young award winners for both the American League and National League were announced Wednesday night on MLB Network. Here are the winners, along with my thoughts on each:

AMERICAN LEAGUE CY YOUNG

Original Pick: Justin Verlander

Finalists: Corey Kluber, Rick Porcello and Justin Verlander

Winner: Rick Porcello

Thoughts On Rick Porcello Winning

The stats of the top pitchers in the American League from 2016 were so close that it was a challenge to choose the player who was the very best. Their ERA’s were within mere decimals of each other, with many other statistics also standing very close to even.

But Rick Porcello and his 22 wins wound up proving to be the most worthy of the Cy Young, as far as the voters were concerned, barely beating out Justin Verlander and his 3.04 ERA, who finished just five votes back of Porcello — the second closest margin since 1970. This also marked the second time in voting history that the player not receiving the most first place votes won the award.

The close race between the two caused a bit of controversy around the baseball world, as despite the closeness of the final tally, Verlander winning 6 more first place votes wasn’t able to do it for him in the end (due in great part to him not being named at all on two ballots).

Corey Kluber finished in third with his 3.14 ERA, with 3 first place votes and 98 overall points, with the favorite by many to win the entire award, Zach Britton, getting the other 5 first place votes and coming in fourth.

Porcello went 22-4 on the season, recording a 3.15 ERA along that time. For that reason alone, he is definitely deserving. However, there are still a lot of people who don’t feel that way. A lot of people felt that Verlander was far more dominant that Porcello throughout the year, and I find myself agreeing with them.

But it is what it is, and the focus here isn’t on Verlander’s extremely close loss (the second such of his career, with a 149-153 loss coming to David Price in 2013) but instead Rick Porcello’s deserving win.

NATIONAL LEAGUE CY YOUNG

Original Pick: Max Scherzer

Finalists: Kyle Hendricks, Jon Lester and Max Scherzer

Winner: Max Scherzer

Thoughts On Max Scherzer Winning

As hard as picking the winner was from the candidates in the American League, the National League was just as difficult. With Kyle Hendricks, Jon Lester and Max Scherzer all having very different cases for winning, choosing the one who stood above the rest wasn’t an easy task.

Hendricks led all of baseball in ERA with a mere 2.13; Lester posted a great ERA of his own, at 2.44, to go along with 19 wins; and Scherzer struck out a stellar 284 batters, despite his 2.96 ERA being the highest of the group.

But in the end, the voters went with Max Scherzer, and it wasn’t even close. Scherzer tallied up a total of 192 points, earning 25 first place votes, with Lester finishing runner up with just one first place vote and 102 points, leaving Hendricks coming in third with 2 first place votes and 85 points collectively. (The other two first place votes surprisingly went to Clayton Kershaw, who finished fifth in the voting).

The deciding factor for Scherzer’s Cy Young win likely came down to his utter dominance. Although he had the highest ERA of the finalists, Scherzer posted an 11.2 K/9 rate this season over the course of 220.1 innings, including a 20-strikeout performance against his former team, the Tigers, this year.

This marks Max Scherzer’s second career Cy Young award, joining him with Roy Halladay, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and Gaylord Perry as the only other pitchers to win a Cy Young in both leagues.

But if 2016 was any indication, Scherzer may not be done setting records.

My Vote for 2016 N.L. Most Valuable Player Award

As I stated in my American League post, choosing the Most Valuable Player from each league is the most difficult decision of all the major baseball awards handed out at the conclusion of each season. With Rookie of the Year and Cy Young you can usually look solely at which player had the best overall stats, but Most Valuable Player sometimes involves a bit more than just stats. While it’s important that an MVP winner had a great statistical year, the best offensive player doesn’t automatically become the most valuable.

With that said, it was an even more difficult vote for me this season than it has been in seasons past. Daniel Murphy, Joey Votto, Kris Bryant, Nolan Arenado and Anthony Rizzo were all extremely valuable members of their given team in the National League. However, in the end, only one player can win the Most Valuable Player award.

Joey Votto had a somewhat under-the-radar superstar season, after getting off to a horribly slow start. When all was said and done this season, Votto wound up hitting .326 with 29 home runs and a .440 OBP. Playing for a sparsely talented Reds club, it’s easy for Votto to get overlooked, but he was in fact very valuable.

Equally as valuable was Daniel Murphy. This season for the Nationals, Murphy hit a staggering .347, virtually getting a hit every night. Also hitting a career high 25 homers to go along with 104 RBI’s, the year Murphy had is certainly one to remember, but not one to award with the MVP.

One of the brightest stars in baseball at the moment, Anthony Rizzo, also placed in the running for MVP in the National League. With his 32 homers and .385 OBP, Rizzo helped propel the Cubs to the postseason for the second straight season. But regardless, the numbers simply aren’t there for him to win the award.

Once again, I made the very difficult decision of placing Nolan Arenado as runner up in the voting for MVP. Despite him having hit 41 homers with a mammoth 133 RBI’s on the season, I find it hard to give him my vote. Even so, there should be nothing taken away from the season he had. Arenado is in a class all his own.

With the second-place finish of Nolan Arenado, that leaves Kris Bryant on top for the Most Valuable Player in all of the National League. Although he recorded 31 fewer runs batted in than Arenado on the year, his performance day in and day out, including two five-for-five performances, helped cement the Cubs with the best record in all of baseball, subsequently giving Bryant the edge in the MVP voting.

My Vote for 2016 A.L. Most Valuable Player Award

Choosing the Most Valuable Player from each league is the most difficult decision of all the major baseball awards handed out at the conclusion of each season. With Rookie of the Year and Cy Young you can usually look solely at which player had the best overall stats, but Most Valuable Player sometimes involves a bit more than just stats. While it’s important that an MVP winner had a great statistical year, the best offensive player doesn’t automatically become the most valuable.

With that said, it was an even more difficult vote for me this season than it has been in seasons past. There are several players, including Jose Altuve, Mookie Betts, Mike Trout, David Ortiz and Mark Trumbo, who were all extremely valuable members of their given team in the American League. However, in the end, only one player can win the Most Valuable Player award.

The first player I’m forced to knock from this group is Mark Trumbo, who lead all of baseball in home runs this season but won’t lead them all in MVP voting. Despite smacking 47 big flies for the O’s and driving in 108 runs, helping to keep the Orioles in contention, Trumbo didn’t quite do enough to earn the honor.

Next off the list for me is Jose Altuve. For such a small player, Altuve has huge impacts each and every season, and this year saw more of the same. Playing in all but one game this season, Altuve hit a career high 24 homers and came up just shy of 100 RBI’s, all while batting .338. Even so, he didn’t do enough to make him the most valuable.

Also not the most valuable in my mind is Mookie Betts, but it’s not because the stats weren’t there. Betts hit .318 for the Red Sox and slugged 31 homers in addition to scoring 122 runs. If not for a couple of other players who had superstar-level seasons, Betts would be the easy pick for MVP. But he’s not this season.

Finishing second in MVP voting for the fourth time in his five year career is Mike Trout, as I’m seeing things now. He had the highest WAR — if that’s a stat you like — yet again of any player around baseball, coming from his great defense and .315/.441/.550 slash line. He was the most valuable Angels player by far, but not quite the most valuable American Leaguer.

That distinction goes to Boston’s David Ortiz. In this his final season in Major League Baseball, Ortiz posted stats never before seen by any player age forty or older. Hitting .315 while slugging a superb .660, Ortiz was able to record a 38 home run and 127 RBI season, pushing the Red Sox to another division title. With this being David Ortiz’s final campaign, it would be fitting to see him go out in style with the Most Valuable Player award.

My Vote for 2016 N.L. Cy Young Award

As I stated in my American League Cy Young post, each season there are usually several pitchers from each league who have incredible seasons, making it difficult to choose between them for who most deserves the Cy Young award. This year was no different. Max Scherzer, Jose Fernandez, Tanner Roark, Johnny Cueto, Madison Bumgarner, Noah Syndergaard, Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks all had years worthy of recognition, but in the end only one can with the National League Cy Young award.

Admittedly, there are a few others with unbelievable stats from 2016 in the National League not included on my list, but I decided to begin the discussion with Tanner Roark, who is one of the eight pitchers in the NL with an ERA below 3.00. Roark’s 2.83 ERA over the course of this season is quite remarkable, but with so much competition, it quickly leaves him on the outside looking in.

Another pitcher in Roark’s position is Johnny Cueto, who had an unbelievable year but still didn’t do enough to earn the Cy Young. Even so, Cueto’s 18-5 record with a 2.79 ERA helped get the Giants into the postseason once again, despite some offensive struggles, and he will be a big part in their success moving forward.

Jose Fernandez is the next pitcher I’m taking off the list, which is truly unfortunate. With the stunning news of his untimely death coming back in September, it would be fantastic to see him win the award. However, while I’m all for honoring his memory, there are other candidates who deserve the award more when you take a close look at the stats.

Despite getting the Mets into the postseason for the second straight season, Noah Syndergaard won’t wind up with the Cy Young award when all is said and done. But his 2.60 ERA and 218 strikeouts certainly stand out on a pitching staff that saw a plethora of injuries, and Syndergaard will likely continue to be the ace of Queens.

Three-thousand miles away, out in San Francisco, Madison Bumgarner had yet another great season of what has become a great career to this point. Bumgarner managed to strike out 251 batters over the span of 34 starts this season, and combined with Johnny Cueto to make on of the best one-two punches in all of baseball, but won’t take home the award when the voting is revealed.

Speaking of one-two punches, John Lester made up one half of perhaps the best duo in all of baseball for the Cubs. His 2.44 ERA was second best in all of baseball, and his .211 opponent batting average definitely jumps out, but so does Lester’s less than one strikeout-per-inning, making him fall short of the Cy Young award.

It came down to a couple of aces this season. But while Kyle Hendricks and his MLB-best 2.13 ERA initially makes him the heavy favorite, I couldn’t select him to pick up the award. His strikeout numbers are subpar at best, and while that isn’t always a deciding factor in the voting process, it is in this case.

For that reason, I went with Max Scherzer to win the National League Cy Young. He has the worst ERA of all the players on my list, at a dismal 2.96, but it’s his strikeout numbers that give him the edge in my mind. The Cy Young award is about utter dominance, and Scherzer’s 284 K’s (including a 20-strikeout performance this season) makes him the number one choice. Striking out 114 more batters than my runner up Kyle Hendricks, I made the tough but correct decision for the award this season.

My Vote for 2016 A.L. Cy Young Award

Each year there are usually several pitchers from each league who have incredible seasons, making it difficult to choose between them for who most deserves the Cy Young award. This year is no different. The American League saw Rick Porcello, Zach Britton, Corey Kluber, Masahiro Tanaka, Aaron Sanchez and Justin Verlander all having great seasons. However, in the end, only one player can take home the Cy Young award.

Although Rick Porcello had a great season that helped carry the Red Sox into the postseason, I don’t feel he’s one of the top few candidates for the Cy Young award. His 3.15 ERA on the year is really good, and his 22 wins — given, wins aren’t as big of a deal as they used to be — stand out, but Porcello didn’t quite do enough all around to earn my vote.

Holding the same fate, Masahiro Tanaka also had a fantastic year, posting a 3.07 ERA over the course of nearly 200 innings pitched for the Yankees. However, his all around stats don’t really hold up when compared to the others in the running. Even so, Tanaka looks to be the ace of the staff moving forward.

Aaron Sanchez’s season was also something special, recording an American League best 3.00 ERA, and virtually taking the Blue Jays to the postseason. With that said, he still didn’t do enough to win the award, as he made a handful of starts fewer than the frontrunners, leading to his strikeouts being lower.

Finishing third on my list is Corey Kluber, who had an amazing year despite it not being on the level we have seen before from Kluber in the year he won the Cy Young. Kluber struck out 227 batters over 215 innings pitched, and held opponents to a .216 average on the year, but likely won’t win the award when all is said and done.

Happening only a handful of times in baseball history, I’m not completely against a reliever winning the Cy Young award, but they have to have posted an unbelievably historic year. Zach Britton certainly fits that category, recording a 0.54 ERA on the season while notching 47 saves, but I don’t see him as more worthy than a certain Tigers’ ace.

The deserving winner of the American League Cy Young — even if he doesn’t wind up being the one to win it — is undoubtedly Justin Verlander. Having a bounce back season, Verlander lead all of the American League in strikeouts, with 254 on the season, and recorded a mere 3.04 ERA while holding opponents to a .207 average. All combined, Verlander is the rightful winner of the top honor for pitcher in the American League.

My Vote for 2016 N.L. Rookie of the Year Award

As I stated in my American League Rookie of the Year post, watching young players succeed upon their first year in the majors is always fun. Though it never guarantees that any given player will carry that early success throughout their career, it’s always a good indication of which players are going to be stars for years to come. We certainly had a fair share of those type of players in the National League this season, with players such as Trea Turner, Brandon Drury, Junior Guerra, Aledmys Diaz, Ryan Schimpf, Tommy Joseph, Corey Seager, Trevor Story and Seung Hwan Oh all having seasons worthy of recognition. However, in the end, only one player can win the coveted Rookie of the Year award.

With so many names in theoretical contention for the award this season, it’s simply not practical to discuss them all, and thus I’ll take this time to go ahead and eliminate a few of them from my list right now. Brandon Drury, Ryan Schimpf and Tommy Joseph are the easiest to eliminate, as although they each has something special among their stats, the simply sit at the bottom of the pack when it comes to the running for the award.

Now having that out of the way, the next player I can take out is Aledmys Diaz. While he lead all of baseball in batting average for a good bit of time upon his arrival this season, Diaz fell off as the year went on. Even so, his 17 homers and 65 runs batted in to go along with an even .300 average make him a player worth watching in the future.

Next to be slashed off is Seung Hwan Oh, who is probably not a well known name to the majority of baseball fans. Even so, there is good reason to learn his name. Striking out 103 batters in 76 relief appearances for the Cardinals this season, Oh’s 1.92 ERA is very impressive, but not good enough to make me feel he is deserving of the award.

The other pitcher on my list — of the starting variety — is yet another young star in the making. Junior Guerra’s 2.81 ERA over 20 starts for the Brewers was truly one of the only bright spots of yet another down year for the Brewers. If he can keep that going in the future, Guerra could turn out to be a valuable part of Milwaukee’s rotation.

One of the toughest things for me to do is put Trea Turner finishing third on my Rookie of the Year list, but that’s exactly where I have him falling. His .342 average on the season with 33 stolen bases and 13 home runs make him a well-rounded future All-Star, but not the Rookie of the Year winner.

It came down to a couple of sluggers in my mind, with Trevor Story finishing runner up. Had he not have gotten hurt, things would’ve been much closer, with Story perhaps winning the award, but his 27 home runs and 72 RBI’s have him placing second. Given, this power surge could’ve been a fluke, but it would appear Story has found a home in Denver.

The winner of the National League Rookie of the Year award therefore falls to Corey Seager, who was the heavy favorite heading into the 2016 season. His stats are hard to ignore, as Seager looks to be the Dodgers’ starting shortstop for the next decade or more. Seager’s .308 average combined with 26 home runs and 72 RBI’s make him one of the game’s brightest stars in the coming years.

My Vote for 2016 A.L. Rookie of the Year Award

Watching young players succeed upon their first year in the majors is always fun. Though it never guarantees that any given player will carry that early success throughout their career, it’s always a good indication of which players are going to be stars for years to come. We certainly had a fair share of those type of players in the American League this season, with players such as Edwin Diaz, Nomar Mazara, Tyler Naquin, Gary Sanchez, Max Kepler and Michael Fulmer all having seasons worthy of recognition. However, in the end, only one player can win the coveted Rookie of the Year award.

This season for the Mariners, Edwin Diaz had an unbelievable rookie campaign, recording 18 saves and posting a 2.79 ERA over 51.2 innings in which he struck out 88 batters. But while he looks to have a bright career moving forward, there were several other better candidates for Rookie of the Year than Diaz.

Likewise, this season saw Max Kepler having a fantastic year, knocking 17 homers and recording 63 RBI’s. However, what’s keeping him from being a true contender for the award in my mind is his dismal .235 batting average. But while that’s disappointing, look for Kepler to raise that number as he gets more experience moving forward.

Tyler Naquin was another one of the standout rookies from the 2016 American League crop. Hitting .296 on the year with 14 homers, Naquin helped play a big role in carrying the Indians into the postseason. He should remain one of their big-time pieces in the future, but he didn’t do enough this season to earn the award.

As with Naquin, the Rangers’ Nomar Mazara is a player deserving of vast recognition, but not the award for Rookie of the Year. Getting off to an unbelievable start, but cooling off drastically as the season went on, Mazara’s 20 homers and 64 RBI’s are very impressive, but not impressive enough for any better than third on my list.

The same holds true for the stats of Michael Fulmer, who was the favorite for the award until the last bit of the season. Still, despite not having the strong finish to the year to cement an award win, Fulmer broke out in 2016 as one of the best pitchers on the Tigers’ staff, with his 3.06 ERA over 159 innings pitched.

That leaves just Gary Sanchez as the player who I feel is most deserving of the Rookie of the Year award for the American League. It is a bit of a controversial pick, as Sanchez’s 20 home runs and 42 RBI’s on the season came over the course of just 53 games played — not even a third of a full season. But despite that, Sanchez had an absolutely historical season that leaves little doubt in my mind that he should win the top honor for American League rookies.

Keuchel and Arrieta Win Cy Young Award

The Cy Young award — named after the Hall of Fame pitcher who died in 1955 — was first handed out in 1956 to Don Newcombe, with the goal of recognizing the “most valuable pitcher” from each season. The first eleven years of the award saw one pitcher per year receiving the honor, but in 1967 the Cy Young began being handed out to a pitcher from each league who was voted on as the best from the season.

Voting for the award is fairly straightforward.

Two writers from each city of both the American League and National League make up the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) voters for the Cy Young award, making a total of thirty voters for each league (fifteen teams, with two voters per city). A first place vote earns a player seven points, a second place vote gets four points, a third place vote receives three points, a fourth place vote is worth two points, with a fifth place vote earning a single point. Once added up, the player with the highest overall total wins.

The 2015 Major League Baseball Cy Young award winners for both the American League and National League were announced Wednesday night on MLB Network. Here are the winners, along with my thoughts on each:

AMERICAN LEAGUE CY YOUNG

Original Pick: David Price

Finalists: Sonny Gray, Dallas Keuchel and David Price

Winner: Dallas Keuchel

Thoughts On Dallas Keuchel Winning

Things couldn’t have been any closer statistically between Dallas Keuchel and David Price. Keuchel posted a 2.45 ERA on the season compared to Price’s 2.48 mark; Keuchel won 20 games, while Price netted 18; Price won in the strikeout race, but only by a total of nine punchouts. To make a long story short, their seasons were nearly identical.

Because of the close race, I unsuccessfully picked Price to win, but Keuchel ultimately had a slight edge by pitching 232 innings that included three complete games and two shutouts.

In addition, Keuchel set the record for most games won at home in a single season without a single loss, with 15 (the previous record was 13). For those reasons, the end result wasn’t as close as many had predicted.

Dallas Keuchel won the Cy Young award fairly easily, receiving 22 of the 30 first place votes for a total of 186 points, with David Price coming in second with 143 points and 8 first place votes, and Sonny Gray coming in third with a total of 82 points.

The season Dallas Keuchel had was inarguably unbelievable, and it should be very interesting to see if he can keep it up moving forward. Keuchel becomes the first Astros pitcher to win the Cy Young award since 2004, when Roger Clemens won the honor.

NATIONAL LEAGUE CY YOUNG

Original Pick: Jake Arrieta

Finalists: Jake Arrieta, Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw

Winner: Jake Arrieta

Thoughts On Jake Arrieta Winning

As close as the American League Cy Young race was, the National League side of things was even closer. With Jake Arrieta, Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw all having terrific seasons in vastly different ways, it was difficult to pick between them for who was most deserving.

Even so, it was Arrieta who wound up winning the National League Cy Young award. While Greinke’s 1.66 ERA was unfathomable, and Kershaw continued his dominance with 301 strikeouts, Arrieta did something in the second half of the season that I feel truly put him over the top in the Cy Young voting.

Following the All-Star game, Arrieta went on a stretch never before matched in the history of the game. Arrieta posted a mere 0.75 ERA over the entire second half of the season, bringing his ERA down to 1.77 on the year, and ultimately was a big factor in the Cubs making the postseason.

Jake Arrieta got 17 total first place votes for a collective 169 points, barely beating out Zack Greinke’s 147 points including 10 first place selections, and Clayton Kershaw who received three first place votes of his own but finished third with 101 points.

The fifth Cubs pitcher to ever win the award, and the first since Greg Maddux in 1992, Arrieta continues the Cubs’ offseason award winning streak. With Kris Bryant winning the Rookie of the Year and Joe Maddon picking up the Manager of the Year award, the Cubs become the first team with three major award winners since the Mariners in 2001.

With this year’s Cy Young award race being the closest it has been in years, it makes everyone around the baseball world begin to look ahead to the 2016 season. The best teams are usually the ones with great pitching, and it should be fun to see how Dallas Keuchel and Jake Arrieta, and their respective teams, do in 2016 and beyond.

My Vote for 2015 A.L. Rookie of the Year

Watching young players succeed upon their first year in the majors is always fun. Though it never guarantees that any given player will carry that early success throughout their career, it’s always a good indication of which players are going to be stars for years to come. We certainly had a fair share of those type of players in the American League this season, with players such as Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, Miguel Sano, Lance McCullers Jr., and Carson Smith all having seasons worthy of recognition. However, in the end, only one player can win the coveted Rookie of the Year award.

Carson Smith had a terrific rookie season as a reliever with the Mariners. Posting a 2.31 ERA over the course of 70 innings pitched, all while striking out 92, Smith will likely have many more years to come as a top notch relief pitcher. But although his year was great, it’s no where near good enough for the Rookie of the Year.

Lance McCullers Jr., like Smith, is a pitcher who had a good season, making 22 starts for the Astros and striking out more batters than innings pitched. However, also like Carson Smith, McCullers won’t be taking home any hardware in 2015.

Miguel Sano is a solid candidate for the top rookie honor, but he didn’t quite do enough to receive it in my mind. His 18 homers and 52 RBI’s over just 79 games with the Twins is very impressive, but the numbers just aren’t there for him. Even so, Sano is going to be a force to be reckoned with for the next decade or so.

It came down to Carlos Correa and Francisco Lindor for me, but Lindor just misses out. He really exploded onto the scene with the Indians back in June and is cementing himself as a future Gold Glove winner. Lindor’s .356 on base percentage and 12 homers as a shortstop are impressive, but not as impressive as another fellow rookie shortstop.

For me, while it was close between Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa, there’s no other choice for 2015 American League Rookie of the Year over Correa. Hyped ever since he was selected as the number one overall draft pick in 2012, Correa burst into the Astros lineup and never looked back. Blasting 22 home runs (an Astros rookie record) and knocking in 68 runs, Correa is sure to be a future All-Star shortstop for Houston.