We just hit the half-way point of the Major League Baseball season. There have sure been some surprises, both good and bad from some unexpected teams and players. I’ll give you my mid-season awards, as if the season ended today, and talk about whether some of those award winners can sustain their top notch status through the fall.
AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers
The easiest choice on the board here, and the player I most expect to sustain his success through the end of the season. The reason Cabrera is the easiest choice, is because this season isn’t really head over heels above his previous seasons. Cabrera has just been a hitting machine and his .369 average, 25 homeruns, and 82 RBIs are good for first, second, and first in the American League. It looks like he’ll be making another run at the Triple Crown this year. For the record, I don’t think Cabrera catches Chris Davis in homeruns. Davis just seems to be in the zone this year, and I think this is his year to win the AL homerun title, barring any injury that forces him to miss a decent amount of games. Don’t count out Mike Trout either, who the baseball writers will love because of how good he is at each aspect of the game. It’s always an interesting argument if you think the MVP award is for the best overall player, instead of the best hitter, as Cabrera is average to below average in every other aspect of the game.
NL MVP: Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks
From perhaps the easiest choice of these awards to the toughest. Goldschmidt his having a career year in Arizona, as his homerun and RBI numbers are getting ready to surpass his totals from last year, his first full year as a starter, and we’re only halfway through the season. Goldschmidt is a no-doubt All-Star this year, and he looks like a future superstar in the making. A few weeks ago I might have chosen Troy Tulowitzki, but his injury has allowed a lot of other National Leaguers to surpass him in many statistical categories, and he has missed enough time so that currently his .347 batting average doesn’t even qualify for the batting title. I hope he is able to come back and have close to a full season to see if he is up for a serious run at the MVP. The early leader in the clubhouse, Justin Upton, seems to have played himself out of the running for MVP in June, as his batting average has been on a serious decline, and his homeruns seem to have come to a complete halt. Some other names to keep in mind are Carlos Gonzalez, Carlos Beltran, Buster Posey, Yadier Molina, Domonic Brown, and Brandon Phillips, along with five to ten more legitimate contenders. The NL MVP race is still wide open at the half-way mark.
AL Cy Young: Max Scherzer, Detroit Tigers
I like a few guys to contend for the AL Cy Young award by the end of the season, but if you made me choose today I’ll take Scherzer. Scherzer isn’t close to the ERA leader, but he is leading the league with 12 wins and still hasn’t taken a loss, and he has tallied up 131 strikeouts already. Clay Buchholz is also undefeated, and he looks like he is having the best year of his career, except he looks like he could miss a decent amount of time with a neck injury. Yu Darvish is having an excellent season, and with a league leading 151 strikeouts, and an equally impressive 2.78 ERA and 1.01 WHIP. His 8-3 record doesn’t look Cy Young like, but if you take a closer look at those losses and no-decisions, the Rangers were usually only scoring in between one and three runs in each of those starts. Scherzer might be the half-way Cy Young winner, but Darvish may be the favorite to win it by the end of the season.
NL Cy Young: Matt Harvey, New York Mets
Harvey leads the National League qualified starters in ERA at 2.00, WHIP at 0.85, and strikeouts with 132. Harvey has been by far the best pitcher in the National League, and the only statistic that defies that thinking is his seven wins. His lower win total is obviously in part due to the fact that he pitches for a below average team, but the writers have shown before in their first-place voting of Felix Hernandez for the AL Cy Young in 2010, that they are not afraid to give their top vote to a pitcher with a low win total from a below average team, if he is by far the best pitcher in the league. Jordan Zimmermann has been a great pitcher for the Nationals this year, and if Harvey slips up at all in the second half, Zimmermann could emerge as the leader for the NL Cy Young award. Adam Wainwright, Clayton Kershaw, and Cliff Lee aren’t too far off from that distinction either.
AL Rookie of the Year: Jose Iglesias, Boston Red Sox
It sure would make it easier if Manny Machado had a few less at bats last year, and qualified as a rookie. Since he doesn’t, Iglesias is my choice for AL Rookie of the Year. Iglesias was supposed to be a fill-in for Stephen Drew and Will Middlebrooks, but he has made it impossible to ignore putting him in the lineup every day. While Iglesias doesn’t have nearly enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title, he has hit .409 with a .455 on-base percentage this year. He isn’t the type of player that’s going to hit for a lot of power, but he has the potential to be a leadoff hitter who can routinely get on base for some Red Sox power hitters to drive in.
NL Rookie of the Year: Yasiel Puig, Los Angeles Dodgers
I know he’s only been up for a month, but I assure you, it’s not too soon to talk about Puig for NL Rookie of the Year. Unlike the American League, there are a ton of candidates who you could justify giving the award to in the National League. Puig however, is the only player from that group who is putting up historical numbers. Puig is hitting .436, with seven homeruns, in only 100 at-bats. For those of you who would argue Evan Gattis has been more productive over the whole season, let me put the comparison of those two in perspective for you. If Puig recorded an out in every at-bat until he had as many at-bats as Gattis has accumulated this season, Puig would still have more hits than Gattis. What puts Puig in jeapordy of losing the Rookie of the Year is some of the great seasons rookie pitchers have been putting up so far. Shelby Miller, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Jose Fernandez, and Julio Teheran have already put up great seasons so far, and Tony Cingrani, and Gerrit Cole have started off great in their limited time. All of these pitchers have been great, but so far only Puig has been historic, so even though he’s in his first month, I’ll still take him for NL Rookie of the Year.
Managers of the Year: John Farrell, Boston Red Sox; Clint Hurdle, Pittsburgh Pirates
In general, the Manager of the Year award goes to either the manager of the team who has the best record in each league, or the manager who is thought of to do the most, with the least amount of talent. In both leagues this year, I think a case could be made that the managers of the year could qualify for both of those descriptions. In the American League, the Red Sox were picked to finish fourth or fifth in the AL East by many media outlets. While we may forget that now, as the Red Sox pitching staff is dominating the American League, it was only a few months ago when little was expected of this team. Farrell has returned to the Red Sox, formerly as the pitching coach, to inject an energy back into this pitching staff, and it has led them to the top of the American League standings.
Hurdle has been equally as successful and surprising as Farrell this year. The Pirates have put up the best record in the National League through the first half of the season, and like the Red Sox, the Pirates are also doing it with their pitching. The Pirates rotation has been a plug-and-play staff, as eleven pitchers have already made starts for Pittsburgh this season. Despite that fact, the Pirates are getting some quality starts from some guys who were thought to be past their prime, like A.J. Burnett, Francisco Liriano, and Wandy Rodriguez. The Pirates bullpen has been successful as well, with Jason Grilli looking to make the All-Star team in his age-36 season. The Pirates have had some very good early starts to the seasons in the past few years, but they look like they can keep it going into the fall this year, and if they can, look for Hurdle to take home Manager of the Year honors.