2015 MLB Awards

I don't write about baseball often, and there doesn't seem to be a ton of interest among those of you that actually read the blog.  That said, I still want to note my picks for the MLB award winners, so let's do an abbreviated post.  As usual, I will just picking the six awards I care about, and leaving things like best manager for others to sort out.  Also as usual, I will list as many runners-up as I care to, because why not.

AL Rookie

1. Francisco Lindor - SS, Cleveland
2. Lance McCullers - SP, Houston
3. Carlos Correa - SS, Houston
4. Miguel Sano - 3B/DH, Minnesota
5. Carson Smith - RP, Seattle

A ridiculous quartet of top prospects and a top-notch reliever make up a very strong group of rookies.  Lindor gets the nod, as his defensive skills helped to almost pull Cleveland back into the playoff race after their terrible start.

AL Cy Young

1. Chris Sale - Chicago White Sox
2. Dallas Keuchel - Houston
3. David Price - Detroit/Toronto
4. Carlos Carrasco - Cleveland
5. Corey Kluber - Cleveland

No one had a super-elite year pitching-wise in the AL, so we're left with a virtual tie between two very different pitchers.  Keuchel pitched more innings than Sale and burned way more worms (61.7% ground ball rate), while Sale simply struck everyone out.  Keuchel has a major advantage wins and the ERA, which means he's actually going to win the award, so I'll give the tie-breaker to Sale.  In other news, Corey Kluber wasn't too far off from his Cy Young season, but his team's atrocious first-half defense doomed his bid to repeat. 


AL MVP

1. Mike Trout - OF, LA Angels
2. Josh Donaldson - 3B, Toronto
3. Manny Machado - 3B, Baltimore

Another virtual tie.  I'll give it to Trout, because there's reason to believe the modest defensive metrics that drag his numbers slightly down are understated.  Donaldson has slight advantages in WPA and RE24, if we want to look at situational metrics, but the gap isn't enough for that to be the difference for me.


NL Rookie

1. Kris Bryant - 3B, Chicago Cubs
2. Noah Syndergaard - SP, NY Mets
3. Matt Duffy - 3B, San Francisco
4. Kyle Schwarber - OF, Chicago Cubs
5. Michael Conforto - OF, NY Mets
6. Joc Pederson - OF, LA Dodgers

Kris Bryant almost made the MVP list below, so he wins the Rookie award pretty easily, in spite of a strong class.  The most notable runner up is Syndergaard, the Mets flamethrower who just had the fastest season in the Pitch-FX era.


NL Cy Young

1. Clayton Kershaw - LA Dodgers
2. Jake Arrieta - Chicago Cubs
3. Max Scherzer - Washington
4. Zack Greinke - LA Dodgers

Three times this season, Max Scherzer pitched a complete game where he was one out shy of a perfect game, and he's probably not going to finish in the top three of the Cy Young voting.  That should indicate as much as anything the strength of this year's field.  While there's arguments to made for everyone, Kershaw is still the best pitcher on the planet, and might have had his best season ever.  His 300 strikeouts gave him the league lead in K%, and he finished just behind Greinke for second-lowest walk-rate (Scherzer was #1).  The historic ERAs of Greinke and Arrieta will probably prevent Kershaw from actually winning, but he's still #1 in my book.


NL MVP

1. Bryce Harper - OF, Washington
2. Clayton Kershaw - SP, LA Dodgers
3. Buster Posey - C, San Francisco
4. Joey Votto - 1B, Cincinnati
5. Paul Goldschmidt - 1B, Arizona
6. Jake Arrieta - SP, Chicago Cubs
7. Max Scherzer - SP, Washington

Bryce Harper took all the promise from his lofty hype and his great first two seasons, and turned that talent into one of the best efforts we've seen this century.  What demonstrates the awesomeness of his season as much as anything, is the strength of those listed behind him.  Buster Posey continues to be awesome at everything.  Votto bounced back from injury with a career-best season and Goldschmidt kept doing what he does.  The pitchers, as mentioned above, were pretty good.  Is Bryce Harper now the best player in baseball?  Maybe.  But he was definitely the best player in 2015.