Baseball is Poop

Postseason Awards
NL MVP - Matt Holliday
This was a tough one but right off the bat I eliminated anyone on the Mets because they all choked down the stretch. There was no offensive player on the Diamondbacks or Cubs who merited consideration. So I looked at the Rockies against the Phillies. Each had 5 players who had huge offensive seasons (OPS of .838 or higher). And this is where it got hard. How much value (the key part of most valuable player) does a player have when his team has four other great guys. I chose Holliday because I think the Rockies would have lost more without him, than the Phillies would have lost without Rollins or Howard (but they are my 2nd and 3rd choices).



AL MVP - Alex Rodriguez
This one was much easier. A logical reasonable debate can't be made for anyone else. Not only did A-Rod have stats far superior to anyone else, he didn't have as much help this year as the Yankees usually have. Plus he got a lot of big hits this year for a change, including 2 off Jon Papelbon that spurred the Yankees' late season resurgence. Any voter who doesn't put him first should have his voting privileges revoked.

NL Cy Young - Jake Peavy
He won the pitcher's triple crown (wins, ERA and strikeouts). His ERA was half a run better than second place. He was first in innings, first in WHIP, every reasonable measure of pitchers you can find, Peavy led the NL.

AL Cy Young - CC Sabathia
This will be a very tight race between Sabathia and Josh Beckett, but a better case could be made for Fausto Carmona and maybe even John Lackey over Sabathia. Beckett gets headline attention because of the wins, but the two extra wins are a product of his team. It's really hard to argue based on stats over a group of guys this closely bunched, but what set CC apart for me was his 241 innings.

NL Rookie of the Year - Ryan Braun
This is a no brainer. He had one of the best rookie seasons ever. 34 homers, 97 RBI and an OPS of 1.004. And he missed a almost two months. With a full season his stats would have been expected to be at the minimum, 40 and 115.

AL Rookie of the Year - Brian Bannister
This was a very tough choice. He only pitched 38 innings with the Mets in 2006 so he's still considered a rookie. He went 12-9 with a 3.87 ERA for an awful Kansas City Royals team. But I was most impressed with his consistency. He had a couple bad starts but for one 9 start stretch he was 7-1 (on the Kansas City Royals), he never allowed more than three runs and had an ERA of 2.17.

NL Manager of the Year - Lou Piniella
A close call here because his team did have the 5th best record in the National League, while playing in the worst division. But I chose him because the Cubs got off to such a bad start, and their reversal seemed to be linked to his antics which presumably got the team fired up.

AL Manager of the Year - John McLaren
Another iconoclastic choice. He took over a mediocre team in the middle of the season and got them on an incredible tear. They sank like a stone late in the season but that doesn't diminish what he accomplished as an interim manager.

NL Comeback Player of the Year - Dmitri Young
After a tough year in 2006 with legal, personal and health problems, Young bonced back hitting .320 with 13 homers and 74 RBI.

AL Comeback Player of the Year - Carlos Pena
The most amazing season in baseball in a long time. After being almost completely written off he had MVP type numbers: 46 homers (2nd), 121 RBI (4th), 103 walks (3rd) and a 1.038 OPS (3rd).