2018 MLB Awards

Sure I'll do this again.  Why not?

AL Rookie

1. Shohei Otani - SP/DH, Los Angeles
2. Joey Wendle - 2B,Tampa Bay
3. Shane Bieber - SP, Cleveland
4. Ramon Laureano - OF, Oakland
5. Gleyber Torres - 2B, New York

A pretty deep crop of pretty good rookies still leaves us with the obvious choice for the prize.  It's too bad we couldn't have gotten a full season of Ohtani's better half, but his "lesser" half was still good for a rookie-best 152 wRC+.  I also couldn't resist putting Ramon and his stupid good throws on here.

AL Cy Young

1. Justin Verlander - Houston
2. Chris Sale - Boston
3. Corey Kluber - Cleveland
4. Carlos Carrasco - Cleveland
5. Gerrit Cole - Houston
6. Luis Severino - New York
7. Edwin Diaz - Seattle
8. Blake Treinen - Oakland

Last year, Chris Sale was running away with the award before a subpar September sank his candidacy.  This year, he faces the issue of missing enough starts to not even qualify for the ERA title.  This gives the edge to Verlander, who was basically a little bit of bad home run luck away from the best season of his hall-of-fame career.  After those two comes a bunch of nearly-as-great pitchers and an insanely good duo of AL West closers.

AL MVP

1. Mike Trout - OF, Los Angeles
2. Mookie Betts - OF, Boston
3. Jose Ramirez - 3B, Cleveland
4. Alex Bregman - 3B, Houston
5. Francisco Lindor - SS, Cleveland
6. Matt Chapman - 3B, Oakland

The most loaded MVP field I can ever remember is this year's AL crop.  Chapman had a break out season at third for the A's.  Bregman had a breakout-ier season at third for the Astros.  Jose Ramirez broke out beyond last year's breakout.  But it all comes down to Trout and Betts who both compiled ten-win seasons in spite of their brief DL stints.  The tie goes to Trout in my book, but if you want to pick Mookie, you may do so with a clear conscience.

NL Rookie

1. Juan Soto - OF, Washington
2. Ronald Acuna, Jr. - OF, Atlanta
3. Harrison Bader - OF, St. Louis

There are no wrong answers here, so I'll default to the guy who put together a four-win season as a teenager.

NL Cy Young

1. Jacob deGrom - New York
2. Max Scherzer - Washington
3. Patrick Corbin - Arizona
4. Aaron Nola - Philadelphia
5. Miles Mikolas - St. Louis
6. German Marquez - Colorado

I don't think there's anything more Mets than deGrom having one of the best seasons in recent memory but being in danger of losing the Cy and MVP because of some weird combination of terrible luck and terrible teammates.  Oh well, his contribution to the sport will now be immortalized on the hallowed pages of this weblog.  Also, Patrick Corbin is really good now and Miles Mikolas never walks anyone.

NL MVP

1. Jacob deGrom - SP, New York
2. Christian Yelich - OF, Milwaukee
3. Max Scherzer - SP, Washington

Yelich made this close with a late push, but if you agree that pitchers should be just as able to win the award, it's hard to argue against deGrom.