2008 MLB Awards

Well, the season is over and the Phillies are World Series champions. There are only 2 things left to discuss about baseball: the offseason and the awards. Here are the awards I would give out.

AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez (NYY)
2. Dustin Pedroia (BOS)
3. Carlos Quentin (CHW)
Alex Rodriguez led the American League in VORP (value over replacement player), MLV (marginal lineup value), and PMLV (positional marginal lineup value). Those three statistics are sabremetrics, which are a great way to value a player. Alex Rodriguez’s Yankees did not make the playoffs, which is a disadvantage from the voters. However, A-Rod’s power numbers (35 HR/103 RBI/.965 OPS) are better than those of Pedroia (17 HR/83 RBI/.869 OPS). Both Rodriguez and Quentin missed extended periods of time due to injury, but the reason Quentin falls short of the MVP title is because he was injured when his team needed him most: in September. Quentin led the league with 36 homeruns before he was out with an injury. Despite missing the final 26 games of the regular seasons, he was only one homerun shy of the American League lead (Miguel Cabrera, 37). The overall American League was weak in statistics. Pedroia, Quentin, and Kevin Youkilis may all deserve the MVP award, but it goes to A-Rod here.

NL MVP: Albert Pujols (STL)
2. Hanley Ramirez (FLA)
3. Chipper Jones (ATL)
I don’t know how the top 3 National League MVP candidates are from non-playoff teams either, but this is how I predict it. Albert Pujols had the power, the batting average, and the clutch hitting to give him the MVP award. He led the NL in VORP, MLV, and PMLV just like Rodriguez. Pujols came in 2nd in the batting title to Chipper Jones. Pujols bat .357 while Jones hit .364. Of the 3 vying candidates, Pujols led them with 37 homeruns and 116 RBI. Hanley Ramirez and Chipper Jones will battle it out for 2nd place in the voting, but the winner of that race would go to Ramirez. He hit 33 homeruns and stole 35 bases with a batting average over .300. Though Jones won the batting title and sat around .400 for the first few months of the season, he only hit 22 homeruns with 75 RBI, coming from the #3 hole (Ramirez was primarily the leadoff batter for the Marlins). Regardless of Ramirez and Jones, Pujols is the clear-cut winner.

AL Cy Young: Cliff Lee (CLE)
2. Roy Halladay (TOR)
3. Mike Mussina (NYY)
Cliff Lee had an amazing turnaround season from 2007. Lee won 22 games and led the AL in ERA. He went deep into games many times over the course of the season. However, the case for Roy Halladay is not too far behind of Lee’s. Halladay won 20 games too and struck out more batters. Doc also pitched more complete games than Lee. On the pitcher’s VORP scale, Lee led the entire league with 75.0 points, 1.6 ahead of 2nd place Johan Santana (NYM; NL) and 3.5 ahead of Halladay. Lee edges out Halladay in what should be a close vote. 3rd place could go to anyone: Francisco Rodriguez and his 62 saves, Daisuke Matsuzaka and his low ERA, Jon Lester and his heart-warming story, but my vote would go to Mike Mussina of the Yankees. Mussina had arguably one of the best seasons of his long career, winning 20 games. Mussina had low expectations entering the season but excelled, posting an ERA of 3.37. Mussina had a lot of quality outings for the Yankees and deserves some recognition with it.

NL Cy Young: Tim Lincecum (SF)
2. Johan Santana (NYM)
3. Brandon Webb (AZ) and CC Sabathia (MIL)
Though Brandon Webb won 22 games in 2008, Johan Santana led the league in ERA, and CC Sabathia had a great second half with the Brewers, Lincecum is the winner. Lincecum had the most strikeouts in the NL. He was second in quality starts behind Johan and 8 of his quality starts did not factor into a victory. Between Lincecum and Webb, Lincecum won games with fewer run support, a lower WHIP, a lower opponent’s batting average, and a higher K/BB rate. Between Lincecum and Santana, Lincecum had a much lower HR/9 rate and a much higher K/9 rate. Between Lincecum and Sabathia, Lincecum’s BABIP (batting average on balls put into play) was much lower than Sabathia’s.

AL Rookie of the Year: Evan Longoria (TB)
2. Alexei Ramirez (CHW)
3. Joba Chamberlain (NYY) and Mike Aviles (KC)
Longoria definitely wins this race in a landslide. He led all AL rookies in homeruns and RBI and his impact on the Rays was tremendous. It seems obvious that Longoria wins this. However, the real competition is for the runner-ups. Ramirez flashed power numbers (21 homeruns and 77 RBI) and also played some great defense for the AL Central division winning Whitesox. He demonstrated clutch hitting by batting .380 with RISP, .471 with the bases loaded, and .316 in the late innings of close games. 3rd place is a tie between Yankees Joba Chamberlain and Royal Mike Aviles. Chamberlain gets all the media attention from the New York media whereas Aviles is more of an unknown. Joba Chamberlain led AL rookie pitchers in VORP (32.3) but also suffered shoulder troubles when he was being converted from a reliever to a starter. Aviles led all AL rookie position players in VORP (35.0) and PMLV (21.7). His batting average was .53 points higher than that of Longoria’s. Aviles hit .316 with RISP just like Ramirez too.

NL Rookie of the Year: Joey Votto (CIN)
2. Geovany Soto (CHC)
3. Jair Jurrjens (ATL)
Votto’s and Soto’s numbers are very similar. Votto hit 24 homeruns while Soto hit 23. Soto hit 86 RBI while Votto hit 84. Votto’s batting average was .012 points higher than Soto’s (.297 - .285) and his OPS was .006 points higher than Soto’s (.874 - .868). The main difference between Votto and Soto is Soto’s team, the Cubs, advanced to the postseason. Regardless of the team, Votto’s statistics are better and he would get the award. Jurrjens led all of rookie pitchers in VORP (33.0) and ERA (3.68). Jurrjens’ numbers could have been much better had he not fallen off track later on in the season. His ERA was 3.00 prior to the All-Star break but rose to 4.66 after the All-Star break.

That is it for the major awards. For the record, I would give Joe Maddon (TB) the AL Manager of the Year for the epic turnaround of the Rays in 2008 and Charlie Manuel (PHI) the NL Manager of the Year for giving the city of Philadelphia their first title in 25 years. However, Jerry Manuel, the interim manager of the New York Mets, should come in a close second for his impact towards the Mets’ season. The Mets fired Willie Randolph in the middle of the season with the team struggling, but Manuel stepped in and almost led the Mets to the playoffs, something nobody thought they would do early on in the season.