MLB Regular Season Awards

Well, here we are, the baseball season is over and now it is time to give out the MLB regular season awards. Remember, this is who I would vote for and not who will win.

To decide this I will be using STATS. The reason I do so is because STATS are a measure of performance. I would just go off of what I watched during the season, but I didn’t watch every game. Even if I did, though, I would still use STATS because I may have forgotten a few things and my laptop, that has all of the STATS, doesn’t forget anything.

If you don’t like stats, go read Peter Gammons’ Insider Blog on how the Phillies didn’t fall off when Chase Utley got hurt and that somehow makes Jimmy Rollins the de-facto MVP and watch him call

Anyway, here is my 2007 Ballot:

AL MVP 1st Place Vote – Alex Rodriguez 3B NYY – When you take everything into account (like WARP3 does) there just wasn’t a player who had an all-around better season than ARod. He had a terrific year at the plate (54 HRs, 155 RBI, 142 R), played solid defense (.660 RZR) and was a threat on the bases (24-for-28 in SBs). This was the definition of a complete season; ARod is the only player ever to hit 50 HRs, knock in 150 runs, score 140 runs, and steal 20 bases. It just doesn’t get much better than the year Rodriguez has had this year.

EqA .339 VORP 96.6 WARP3 13.7

2nd Place Vote – Magglio Ordonez RF DET – David Ortiz really had a good season, but not playing defense and Magglio’s .909 RZR (tied for 1st among AL RFs) are the reasons Maggs gets the nod here. Ortiz had the better offensive season. Even if you adjust their numbers with park factors (because Ortiz plays in hitter friendly Fenway and Maggs plays in the graveyard that is Comerica) with OPS+, Ortiz still leads 174 to 168. Anyway, Maggs’ defense gets him the second place finish (not his BA, Mario and Rod) and there is no real argument with him against ARod anymore.

EqA .337 VORP 87.8 WARP3 11.6

3rd Place Vote – David Ortiz DH BOS – I’ve already documented how not playing defense hurts Ortiz’s stock in this award voting annually. Defense aside, there is an argument to be made between the offensive seasons of Ortiz and ARod because Ortiz leads the OPS race 1.069 to 1.064. The defense in ARod’s favor is that Fenway’s Green Monster played a large part in Ortiz’s 51 2Bs this year and this is displayed in OPS+ (park adjusted) as ARod leads 180 to 174.

EqA .338 VORP 86.2 WARP3 9.8

4th Place Vote – Carlos Pena 1B TB – There is no argument for Pena to win the award, I’m just filling out the ballot at this point. Anyone who says Pena is having a better season than Ortiz because Pena has more homers is stupid. Pena is 4th in the AL in EqA and OPS+, so 4th seems like a good number.

EqA .336 VORP 68.5 WARP3 11.8

5th Place Vote – Jorge Posada C NYY – I know what you’re thinking, Yankee fan picks another Yankee. But, really that isn’t it. I made every possible effort to pick someone else at number five, but the arguments for Granderson (EqA .299), Mike Lowell (.288 EqA), Vlad (151 OPS+) and Ichiro (EqA .293) have holes. Posada is having a remarkable season considering his age and the position he plays.

Here are the best single seasons of other catchers with OPS+ and corresponding years: Yogi Berra: 142 in 1956, Bill Dickey: 158 in 1936 (112 games), Ivan Rodriguez: 135 in 2004 (best full season), Johnny Bench: 166 in 1972, Carlton Fisk: 162 in 1972, Roy Campanella: 159 in 1951, Mickey Cochrane: 157 in 1933, Mike Piazza: 186 in 1997, Joe Mauer: 144 in 2006. Posada is having one of the best offensive seasons for a catcher in MLB history.

EqA .322 VORP 73.4 WARP3 10.0

NL MVP

1st Place Vote – Chipper Jones 3B ATL – There is only one player in the NL who is in the top three in EqA, VORP, OPS, OPS+, BA and SLG and Jones is that player. Chipper has virtually no chance of winning this award because his team didn’t make the playoffs and the National Baseball Media abides by arcane methods, but make no mistake he had the best season of any NL player. By the way, Chipper Jones is a Hall-of-Fame-er if he retires tomorrow.

EqA .340 VORP 76.0 WARP3 10.1

2nd Place Vote – Matt Holliday LF COL – Many believe that Holliday won the MVP award with his performance in the one game playoff on Monday. But does his performance late in one important game catapult him over a guy with a .022 point lead in EqA? Not for me.

EqA .318 VORP 75.0 WARP3 12.1

3rd Place Vote – David Wright 3B NYM – Wright is having a terrific season, don’t get me wrong. He hit at a .322/.415/.547 clip, played solid defense (.688 RZR), and was a major threat on the bases (34-for-39 in SBs). But, the .070 point advantage Jones has on Wright in OPS is the reason Jones deserves the award.

EqA .329 VORP 81.1 WARP3 13.2

4th Place Vote – Albert Pujols 1B STL – Pujols must be kicking himself. First he has Barry Bonds holding him back and he finishes second. Then, Ryan Howard steals the award last year with an unbelievable breakout season. Now, he turns in an un-Pujols-like season and doesn’t deserve the award. If he would’ve had another excellent, Pujols-like season, which has become his normal year, he would’ve won. Unfortunate for him, he left his .353 EqA in ’06 and he will still be looking for MVP award number two in ’08.

EqA .333 VORP 72.1 WARP3 12.5

5th Place Vote – Chase Utley – Look, Jimmy Rollins very well may win this award (the writers with votes are dumb), but my reasons for not even having him in my top five are valid. He isn’t the most valuable player on his own team (Utley has him by .034 EqA points, Ryan Howard has him by .016) and he isn’t the most valuable player at his position (Hanley Ramirez is out-VORP-ing him by almost 27 runs). Rollins doesn’t even rank in the NL top 20 in EqA, but he did guarantee winning the division and the Phillies didn’t collapse when Utley got hurt (whatever that means), so he probably will win.

EqA .321 VORP 68.8 WARP3 11.0

AL Cy Young Award

1st Place Vote – C.C. Sabaithia – There is really no question about who was the best pitcher in the AL this year. There just isn’t.

ERA 3.19 WHIP 1.13 VORP 63.7 K/9 7.88

2nd Place Vote – Josh Beckett – JB is the clear cut number two.

ERA 3.27 WHIP 1.14 VORP 58.7 K/9 8.70

3rd Place Vote – Johan Santana – He didn’t have the typical Johan year, but still lead the AL in WHIP.

ERA 3.33 WHIP 1.07 VORP 57.9 K/9 9.66

NL Cy Young Award

1st Place Vote – Jake Peavy – Without a doubt, I can say that Peavy was the best pitcher in the game this year. Peavy had the best ERA, WHIP, VORP and K/9 in all of Major League Baseball.

ERA 2.36 WHIP 1.02 VORP 78.9 K/9 9.71

2nd Place Vote – Brandon Webb – Webb’s scoreless inning streak earlier this season was one of the highlights of the baseball year for me; it was really fun to watch a dominant groundball pitcher on a roll. Webb is the clear cut number two.

ERA 3.02 WHIP 1.18 VORP 63.4 K/9 7.53

3rd Place Vote – John Smoltz – Just filling out the ballot, why not Smoltz?

ERA 3.11 WHIP 1.18 VORP 56.9 K/9 8.62

Here are my first round predictions:

Phillies in 5 over the Rockies.

Cubs in 5 over the Diamondbacks.

Red Sox in 4 over the Angels.

Yankees in 5 over the Indians.

Have a good one.

Oh, by the way, did I mention there is only one October?