Awards are officially done. Now we
look at everything else free agency. Players have turned down their qualifying
offers, and are looking to test the market for a better offer. A list of free
agent batters can be found here, and a list of free agent pitchers are here.
Before we talk more free agency, as
I have been for the past week, let’s go over each award received by the
players.
MVP
No big surprises here, as Miguel
Cabrera claims the AL MVP, while McCutchen wins the NL MVP in a landslide. Cabrera,
though argued as the best hitter in baseball but not the best overall, wins his
second in a row, beating Angels’ OF Mike Trout yet again.
Cabrera is the first player to win
back-to-back since Albert Pujols did it in 2008-09, and the first in the AL
since Frank Thomas in 1993-94. It’s the third year in a row where a Tiger has
won MVP (Justin Verlander did it in 2011).
He had a better offensive year this
year, despite winning the Triple Crown in 2012. He batted .348/.442/.636 with a 187
OPS+, plus had 44 home runs and 137 RBI’s. Last year, he batted .330/.393/.606 with 44 home runs and
139 RBI’s If it wasn’t for Chris
Davis, who finished third in the AL MVP voting, Cabrera would have two Triple
Crowns.
By the end of August, Cabrera looked
like he would have the Triple Crown if he kept it up. However, he was set back
with lots of injuries in September, which not only dropped his batting average,
but killed his running skills and defensive abilities. Cabrera has never been a
great defensive player, and finished with a -1.5 WAR.
Poor Mike Trout. He arguably had
the two best rookie seasons ever, yet he is runner-up for both MVP’s. Keep
strong, Trout! You’ll win plenty some day! Trout once again finished with the
best WAR at 9.2.
Andrew McCutchen wins his first MVP at
only 26, beating out D-Backs’ Paul Goldschmidt and Cardinals’ Yadier Molina. He
was the hero for the Pirates. He has great offensive abilities, not as good as
Cabrera, but McCutchen has much better defensive abilities and base running. The
only thing McCutchen led in the NL (besides random defensive stats, like double
plays turned as a CF) was WAR with an overall 8.2 WAR. That’s better than
Cabrera’s 7.2 WAR.
He finished batting
.317/.404/.508 with 21 home runs, 84 RBI’s, 38 doubles, and 27 steals. He did
not have the slugging like Paul Goldschmidt did, but his base running capabilities
and ability to hit from anywhere at the plate and anywhere in the ballpark made
him one of the most dangerous hitters at the plate.
McCutchen led the Pirates to their
first winning record and playoff appearance in 20 years. Without him, they
might have not been in the playoffs.
He finished 3rd in the
voting last year, having more hits, home runs, RBI’s, and a better batting
average and slugging % in 2012. But he improved with nine more doubles, seven
more steals, and 21 less strikeouts, plus despite winning a gold glove in 2012
and not in 2013, defensive WAR tells that he was much better this year.
At only 26 years old, McCutchen is
just starting his journey to one of the best. There is so much potential in
front of him.
Cy Young
Max Scherzer claims the AL Cy
Young, while Kershaw took NL honors. Once again, no big surprise when it comes
down to it.
Max Scherzer came into the 2013
season thinking he’d be the number 2 pitcher after Verlander, but showed that
he was the ace. He started off winning his first 13 decisions, and finished
with a 21-3 record.
Sabermetric stats showed that he had
a slight edge over his competitors, Yu Darvish and Hisashi Iwakuma. Though
Iwakuma led the three with a 7.0 WAR, Scherzer wasn’t too far behind him with a
6.7 WAR, and had a batter ERA+ (145), WHIP (.0970), and home runs allowed (18). When it comes down to it, the
voters love the record and getting into the playoffs, and Scherzer had that in
control.
Clayton Kershaw was no surprise. He
finished receiving 29 of the 30 1st place votes, blowing away Adam
Wainwright and Jose Fernandez in the voting.
Kershaw has led the NL in ERA for
the third straight year, and wowed everyone with a 1.83 ERA, 232 strikeouts, 194 ERA+, a .915 WHIP, and a 7.8 WAR, the best WAR among pitchers.
The more and more I look at it, the
more I think that Kershaw is the next Sandy Koufax. He’s putting up numbers
that Koufax, Pedro Martinez, and Greg Maddux did. And get this: he’s only 25
years old! He looks more and more like the best pitcher baseball has seen in
quite some time.
Manager of the Year
Here’s where there was some surprise.
Clint Hurdle won the NL Manager of the Year (no surprise here), while Terry
Francona won the AL Manager of the Year. Now here was the surprise.
In his first year with the
Cleveland Indians, Francona managed the team to a 92-70 record with not much to
go with him. But I really do think that John Farrell, the manager for the
Boston Red Sox, deserved it.
Now I love Tito, don’t get me
wrong, as he managed a very talented Red Sox club to two World Series titles in
2004 and 2007, breaking the curse of the Bambino. But Farrell managed a team
that was mostly made up of new players into the organization, going from 69
wins to 97 wins.
Farrell also had to deal with a
rough bullpen that was plagued by injuries, including dealing with an injury to
Clay Buchholz, who looked like the best pitcher in baseball until he was
injured. Yet he kept going. Luckily, he had Koji Uehara to save the day.
Tito and the Indians finished the
season going on a 10-game winning streak, just barely edging out a playoff
spot, but losing in the wild-card game. If that 10-game winning streak didn’t
happen, I bet Tito does not win this award.
That’s just me, though. Clint
Hurdle was easily the manager of the year, especially since his competition was
Don Mattingly and Fredi Gonzalez. Hurdle managed a Pirates team that isn’t
really good compared to the other playoff teams, yet they performed like the
best.
I mentioned before that without
McCutchen, they might not have been in the playoffs. Without Hurdle, not only
are they not in the playoffs, but they don’t have a record above .500. That’s
how good this guy is. He’s a great leader, and I’m glad to see him win the
award.
Rookie of the Year
The Rookie of the Year Award is
possibly my favorite, because it shows that baseball is now moving away from
the old veterans and into these new players that put on quite a show. It’s especially
true this year, as we now move from the Mariano Rivera era, and into an era
with so much young talent.
Jose Fernandez claimed the top spot
in the NL voting, while Wil Myers grabbed AL honors. Both led rookies in terms
of WAR among their respective divisions.
Jose Fernandez put on one of the
best rookie seasons that baseball has ever seen. He finished 12-6 with a 2.19
ERA, having 187 K’s, a 176 ERA+, 5.8
H/9, and a 6.3 WAR. He beat out Yasiel Puig and Shelby Miller too, who both
had excellent years.
Every time I see him, he reminds me
of Kerry Wood. Especially with his dominating curveball that can just fool a
hitter. This kid is something special, and only at age 20, he has more to prove
to the world. Let’s just hope that he gets on a better team that isn’t the
Marlins.
Wil Myers came into the middle of
the year and put the Tampa Bay Rays back into a fighting team. He finished
batting .293/.354/.478 with 13 home runs and 53 RBI’s in 88 games. Not too bad
for a rookie.
The AL showed much less talent this
year than the NL did, but no matter. Jose Iglesias and Chris Archer, the
runners up for the award, both show lots of potential and had great years.
Iglesias probably deserved the award, but being traded in the middle of the
year really hurt his chances.
With awards over, we pose one
question: When does baseball return? Email me at statsbuddy42@gmail.com for any
questions/comments/concerns.
-Evan Boyd
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