2016 MLB Awards

With the 2016 World Series upon us I have put some thought into whom I would vote for to win the major awards if I was the baseball writers who are fortunate enough to vote. Because the baseball writers submit their top ten players for MVP, five for Cy Young and top three for Rookie of the Year/Manager of the Year I will be doing the same. I am also not including playoffs when it comes to my decisions just like the actual baseball writers. All of this is strictly based on opinion and would love to hear other people’s opinions as well. Since this is a Yankees blog I have also added my vote for the team awards as well.

Photo Credit: Joe Nicholson | USA TODAY Sports

AL Manager of the Year

1^st: Terry Francona

2^nd: Jeff Banister

3^rd: John Ferrell

Terry Francona had a very successful season at the helm of the Cleveland Indians team (Without even including a World Series appearance) and that was with their All Star Michael Brantley only playing in eleven (!) games due to injury. While Jeff Banister and John Ferrell also had strong cases, I think Francona was able to do a good job of getting the most out of what he had.

NL Manager of the Year

1^st: Joe Maddon

2^nd: Dave Roberts

3^rd: Dusty Baker

How does this award not go to Joe Maddon? The Cubs went on to win 103 games (Most since the 2009 Yankees) despite having down years from Jayson Heyward and Miguel Montero and having Kyle Schwarber out for pretty much the whole season. While Jake Arrieta did have a very good year, it wasn’t anything like his Cy Young season the season before. With also the reputation of Maddon being a really down to Earth, fun guy to be around who wouldn’t want to play for him?

Yankees Manager of the Year: Joe Girardi (duh)

AL Rookie of the Year

1^st: Gary Sanchez

2^nd: Michael Fulmer

3^rd: Tyler Naquin

So many people will probably think this is a bias opinion but hear me out about this. Yes many people are saying “Its rookie of the YEAR, not rookie of two months,” and while that is true, it’s a stupid excuse. Sanchez would be in consideration for rookie of the year if he put up his .299 average and twenty home runs over a course of the whole season, but the fact he did it in two months is on a whole other level. Not only did Sanchez keep the Yankees in the playoff race way longer than they should’ve been, he was talked about constantly nonstop. Was Fulmer talked about this much? No, and he had a whole season. Every year there are rookie pitchers who’s ERA hovers around 3.00 and wins 12-14 games, 2013 had three of them, but Sanchez was shattering records left and right. Yes its rookie of the YEAR, but Sanchez put up a year’s worth of numbers in two months and that’s pretty damn good.

NL Rookie of the Year:

1^st: Corey Seager

2^nd: Trea Turner

3^rd: Trevor Story

This is an obvious choice here. Seager was by far the best rookie in the National League and he might win this award unanimously. Teammate Trea Turner  also had a strong case after being called up and Trevor Story was pretty much talked about as much as Sanchez was at the beginning of the season. In the end though, Seager wins this easily.

Yankees Rookie of the Year: Gary Sanchez (duh)

AL Cy Young

1^st: Justin Verlander

2^nd: Corey Kluber

3^rd: Masahiro Tanaka

4^th: Zach Britton

5^th: Rick Porcello

This decision was pretty much a toss-up because there was no clear front runner. I mean if a closer is one of the front runners for the Cy Young, there must not be much to choose from, even though Britton had a remarkable year. Wins is a horrible way to value a pitcher and that is why 20 game winners Rick Porcello and J.A. Happ were written off in my book because they benefited from their high powered offenses. I decided to lean towards Verlander because he led all AL pitchers in WAR and his stats were a little better than Kluber’s. Verlander also didn’t have as much help from the offense like Kluber, Porcello and Happ did.

NL Cy Young

1^st: Max Scherzer

2^nd: Kyle Hendricks

3^rd: Noah Syndergaard

4^th: Madison Bumgarner

5^th: Clayton Kershaw

Anyone of these pitchers could easily get my first vote and Kershaw probably would’ve ran away with the award if he would’ve stayed healthy. I am going to lean towards Scherzer because he was electric in almost all of his starts and threw a lot of gems that helped the Washington Nationals clinch the NL East. I am not sure how many Cy Young award winners there have been that led the league in home runs allowed, but Scherzer might end up being one.

Yankees Cy Young: Masahiro Tanaka

AL MVP

1^st: Mike Trout

2^nd Jose Altuve

3^rd Mookie Betts

4^th: Josh Donaldson

5^th: Manny Machado

6^th: Robinson Cano

7^th: Justin Verlander

8^th: David Ortiz

9^th: Miguel Cabrera

10^th: Adrian Beltre

So many good candidates, but no player has been as good the past few years as Mike Trout. While Trout will be snubbed again this year I want to point out how good he was this year. While he was on a losing team, Trout led all of MLB in WAR at 10.6. To put in perspective, Betts was second in WAR at 9.6, a full win less than Trout.  While Betts might end up being the MVP, I think he really benefitted with all that protection in the lineup he was in.

NL MVP

1^st: Kris Bryant

2^nd: Daniel Murphy

3^rd: Nolan Arenado

4^th: Corey Seager

5^th: Max Scherzer

6^th: Anthony Rizzo

7^th: Freddie Freeman

8^th: D.J. LeMahieu

9^th: Jean Segura

10^th: Paul Goldschmidt

Another good tight race for NL MVP, but all signs point to Bryant winning this award and I would also vote for him. Bryant had a year to remember and led the Cubs to a 103 win season. Not bad. I also just wanted to point out that Goldschmidt stole 32 bases as a first baseman! That’s pretty special.

Yankees MVP: Masahiro Tanaka

Article by: Julian Bussells

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