Awards Preview: AL

Out of town for the week, so this year’s awards preview is going to be a little shorter than normal. Below is my rationale for voting on all the major awards.

AL MVP

For MVP I typically put stock in the team’s record. In this case all five candidates came from the teams with a top 3 AL record. From a first glance at the stats it’s clear that J. Perez (NB) and Alridge (Atl) while having good seasons were not the best in the league. Which whittles it down to Herdandez and Borchard from Atl and Kaufman from Texas. Of the two Cheesegrits Hernadez clearly had the better season, which brings it down to a head to head with Kaufman from the Beefeaters. Their lines look as follows Hernadez (45HR 145RBI .309 AVG 1.005 OPS 30 SB in 148 GP) and Kaufman (55HR 133 RBI .318AVG 1.077 in 135 GP). Very comparable stats however, in the end I have to give the edge to Kaufman. In the major offensive stats Hernadez only bested him in RBI which considering he had two MVP candidate teammates makes sense. Also Kaufman was able to post his numbers in 13 less games.

Winner: Kaufman (Tex) (Herdandez very close 2nd)

AL Cy Young

Once again the Cy Young is 5 players from the top 3 records in the AL (Sluggers/Beefeaters tied at 97W). The first pitcher that can be eliminated is J. Diaz (Tex) while he lead the AL in K’s, four plus ERA’s don’t win CY Youngs. Along the same lines F. Espinosa ERA was only a hair under four (3.95) and didn’t have a K title as a calling card. This leaves two Sluggers and a Cheesegrit, as the owner of the Sluggers it was clear to me that Bob Creek had a better season than Gene Fitzgerald. Which leaves B. Creek and G. Baker head to head. While Baker had a fantastic year, Creek posted better numbers in IP, ER, WHIP, K, OAV, BB/P. In fact the only category where Baker has an edge is wins (22 to 19) which I don’t think is enough to overcome the only 6 categories.

Winner: Creek (Lou)

AL ROY

ROY is always a difficult to handicap as you have to place pitchers vs. hitters. The first player that can be eliminated is Sammy Moore from (Chi) he posted solid stats but his brethren were clearly better. This is where things get difficult. Had J.R. Alston not been lost for the season his glove alone would have been reason for high consideration on the list but missing the last 30 games and an OPS below .800 doesn’t let me move him further than 4th. As far as hitters go Blake (Sco) and Acevedo (Was) had very similar seasons however the fact that Acevedo played CF, 2b and 3b this season vs. Blake DH gives him the edge. In the end it comes down to G. Ramirez (NB) and Acevedo (Wash). Had Rameriez pitched more than 155 innings he might have stolen the award but a middle INF that can post a 42HR and 110 RBI in less than 500 at bats is too strong to ignore. [As a side note there are at least 3 franchises that wished they still had Acevedo: NY, Lou and KC now Bur]

Winner: Acevedo (Was)