Beanball: Midseason MLB Awards Predictions Review

Music to listen to:  Omar Rodriguez-Lopez live from Los Angeles (I)

Since we’re around the halfway mark of the Major League Baseball season, I’m overdue for a review of my preseason predictions.  I’ll do the standings portion of the review at the All-Star Break but for now, I will do analysis of my picks for award winners.

This is the first baseball-specific post I’ve done on MLB during the season this year.  I don’t know why that’s the case because we’ve had some entertaining stories.  Boston started the year as the worst team in baseball and may now be the best.  The Joe Mauer saga.  The Cleveland Indians being relevant again.  The Mets and Dodgers playing the fun game of who wants to be the more embattled franchise in baseball (I think Los Angeles filing for bankruptcy clinches the first-half award), Jose Reyes and Prince Fielder showing how to act in a contract year, Albert Pujols showing that sometimes its best to just take the money and many others.  I just think that the NBA, a surprisingly entertaining NHL Playoffs and unfortunately the NFL lockout have taken attention away from baseball.  However, its appropriate that I have this post right now.

If you’re unfamiliar with my prognostication skills when it comes to baseball, just remember that I’ve picked Baltimore, Seattle and Cleveland to make the playoffs at some point in the last two years and you’ve seen how those picks have turned out.

My preseason AL MVP:

1) Carl Crawford (Boston)

2) Evan Longoria (Tampa)

3)  Joe Mauer (Minnesota)

4)  Adrian Gonzalez (Boston)

5)  Miguel Cabrera (Detroit)

Current AL MVP:

1)  Adrian Gonzalez (Boston)

2)  Jose Bautista (Toronto)

3)  Cabrara

4)  Curtis Granderson (New York)

5)  Paul Konerko (Chicago)

Thoughts: I was leary of picking Gonzalez at the start of the season because of offseason shoulder surgery.  He’s only leading the league in hits, batting average and total bases for the best team in the American League.  Mauer and Longoria have dealt with injuries all year and Carl Crawford had a brutal start to the season that he has only recently started to improve on.  Bautista isn’t a one-year wonder while Granderson has taken advantage of playing time and a friendly hitting park as a home field to be on pace for a career year and actually carry a Yankees offense that hasn’t been as strong as expected.

My preseason AL Cy Young:

1) CC Sabathia (New York)

2) Felix Hernandez (Seattle)

3)  Jon Lester (Boston)

4)  Justin Verlander (Detroit)

5)  Trevor Cahill (Oakland)

Current AL Cy Young:

1)  Verlander

2)  Jared Weaver (Los Angeles)

3)  Josh Beckett (Boston)

4) James Shields (Tampa)

5) Lester

Thoughts:  Verlander leads the league in wins, innings, strikeouts and WHIP.  He’s even in the top-five in ERA, making a bid to win the pitching triple crown.  Plus, he has one no-hitter and come close several times this season.  Weaver does lead the league in ERA and that should be acknowledged.  Its tough to evaluate the Boston pitchers because they are receiving significant run support but both Beckett and Lester have been top-five pitchers this year.  Sabathia is tied with Verlander for the league lead in wins with 10 but I expected more from this year.

My preseason NL MVP:

1)  Brian McCann (Atlanta)

2)  Albert Pujols (St. Louis)

3)  Ryan Braun (Milwaukee)

4)  Troy Tulowitzki (Colorado)

Current NL MVP:

1)  Prince Fielder (Milwaukee)

2)  Jose Reyes (New York)

3)  Matt Kemp (Los Angeles)

4)  Braun

5)  McCann

Thoughts:  I’ve seen some mid-season ballets that don’t even have McCann in the top-ten and that a shame.  He’s carried a bad offense to one of the best records in the league, is hitting over .300 in a premium and is on pace to hit more than 30 home runs this season.  Fielder and Reyes have been battling it out for who will have the best walk year on their impending free agency.  Fielder leads the league in home runs, is second in RBIs and is even hitting .306 for a better team than Reyes who is the league leader in batting average, hits, runs and total bases.  Kemp is the league leader in home runs and second in the league in batting average and RBIs while being one bright spot in an otherwise terrible year for the Dodgers.

My preseason NL Cy Young:

1)  Roy Halladay (Philadelphia)

2)  Tommy Hanson (Atlanta)

3)  Tim Lincecum (San Francicso)

4)  Clayton Kershaw (Los Angeles)

5)  Ubaldo Jiminez (Colorado)

Current NL Cy Young:

1)  Halladay

2)  Cliff Lee (Philadelphia)

3)  Cole Hamels (Philadelphia)

4)  Jair Jurrjens (Atlanta)

5)  Hanson

Thoughts:  I got one right…so far.  Halladay leads the league in innings pitched, wins, strikeouts, is second in ERA and the Phillies are 14-3 in his starts (credit to Tom Verducci of SI.com for the stat of the night).  Lee is in the middle of one of the the best months in recent memory for a pitcher.  Here’s his line for the month:  42 IP, 1 ER, 29 K, 8 BB, ERA 0.21.  It’s hard to achieve this on the expert setting of a video game let alone in real life.  Hamels is having a solid year in his own right, leading the league in WHIP.  Jurrjens does lead the league in ERA so he has to make the top-five.  I still have hope for Hanson who’s in the top-five in the league in strikeouts, ERA and wins but is being overshadowed by some monster seasons by the Phillies’ pitching staff.

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?