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Sports Chat Daily with Scott Mizuno
scottmizuno asked: MLB Awards: Who are your top three for each?
AL MVP
1. Josh Hamilton 2. Robinson Cano 3. Miguel Cabrera
MVP is all about who had the most impact on the league and their team in my opinion. Miguel Cabrera may have posted the best offensive season of all, but his team has been M.I.A. for the last two months. Josh Hamilton’s incredible season was cut short by injury but his impact pushed the Rangers into the driver’s seat over a month ago, before the injury. He was simply dominant. Cano has been the driving force for the Yanks and put up one of the best years by 2B in recent history. He finishes a close 2nd.
NL MVP
1. Joey Votto 2. Carlos Gonzalez 3. Albert Pujols
Each guy had a monster year, but when it comes down to it Votto got the Reds to the playoffs, and surprisingly at that. Votto was a Triple Crown threat the entire season and not only put up one of the top offensive performances on the year, he also was the team leader for Cincy, putting them in the playoffs for the first time since 1995. Without him, the Reds would not be in the playoffs.
AL Cy Young
1. Felix Hernandez 2. CC Sabathia 3. David Price
While MVP has to do with impact on the game, Cy Young is for the best pitcher, period. Sure CC topped 20 wins while Felix ended the season with almost a .500 record but that tells nothing about the season he’s had. Here’s the two stats the explain it all: 30 out of Felix’s 34 starts were Quality Starts, meaning he game his team the chance to win. A better one: of the 30 QS, 25 of them he kept under 2 runs. CC only had 12 games of 2 runs or less.
NL Cy Young
1. Roy Halladay 2. Adam Wainwright 3. Tim Hudson
At midseason it looked like Ubaldo Jimenez would run away with it. And then he disappeared…and Roy Halladay reemerged as the top pitcher in all of the MLB. Yeah, I said it. 21 wins and a 2.44 ERA, we was simply dominant. He easily could have won 25 games this. I don’t want to take anything away from Wainwright who tied Halladay with 25 Quality Starts, nabbed 20 wins and a 2.42 ERA. He had 6 less K’s (219 to 213) in 20 less innings. Then why are we giving it to Doc? Well, he was the definitive ace of his team and led them to the playoffs.
AL Rookie of the Year
1. Neftali Felix 2. Austin Jackson 3. Danny Valencia
In a very thin class, Feliz and Jackson stood above the rest of the AL Rookies. Feliz gets the nod for me because he really made an impact on the Rangers and became one of the top closers in the entire league in just one season. He got over the 40 save mark, held a 0.88 WHIP and only blew two saves. When Texas needed a win and the game was close, they felt confident handing the ball to Neftali. Jackson had a great year too, eclipsing the 100 run mark while grabbing 27 steals and a .293 average. In my opinion though, if Valencia got the chance to play an entire year he would have been able to make a strong case for ROY honors. He was simply stellar in the second half.
NL Rookie of the Year
1. Buster Posey 2. Jaime Garcia 3. Jason Heyward
I can make a case that these 3, Ike Davis, Mike Stanton and possibly even Madison Bumgarner could win the AL ROY. That’s how deep this NL class was this year. At the top of it though is Mr. Posey. The only knock on his NL ROY case is that he played just 108 games, but from the moment he stepped onto the field in early June the kid made a tremendous difference. His .505 slugging was second among all rookies, he kept a .305 batting average on the year with 18 HR and 67 RBI and he did so while playing the toughest position in baseball for the best pitching staff. To top it off, his phenomenal second half essentially put the Giants in the postseason for the first time in 6 seasons.
This is one of many “Sports Chat Daily with Scott Mizuno”. Every day we hope to answer sports questions on our respective blogs regarding NBA, NFL, MLB and maybe even some college. For more fantastic sports commentary go check out & follow his blog.
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High-res →
Buster Posey
Giants’ catcher of the future. Textbook hitting in tonight’s game. Welcome to the Bigs.
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High-res →
Buster Posey | San Francisco Giants C
Buster went yard today at Spring Training! I feel its appropriate to throw this picture up now! Expect to see this guys come up midseason, and be the face of the Giants offense for years to come.
I’m so pumped for the season.
