Calling it Now

With summer winding down and the public’s interest in baseball vanishing faster than this Hunter Pence’s home run ball leaving the yard, its time to announce the year’s award winners.

American League Most Valuable Player: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers

This may go down as the easiest MVP choice in the history of baseball; and if it’s not someone’s voting privileges need to be revoked.

                                                  

Cabrera is hitting .357 this season. The next closest person to him in the major leagues, Yadier Molina, trails him by 24 points.

The Tiger’s slugger has 130 runs batted in this year and we aren’t even in September yet. The next closest player is 12 RBI behind him.

Cabrera is also second in the majors in runs scored and leads the American league in hits.

Literally if you go to MLB.com’s “American Leaders” page, Cabrera is first in everything offense except for home runs; where he is just three back of Chris Davis.

Also, as if he needed to further his own argument, Cabrera’s been battling a lower abdomen strain for a month. And he could be the first person ever to win back to back triple crowns.

Even if he doesn’t, AL MVP is a lock for sure.

National League MVP: Allen Craig, Saint Louis Cardinals

While picking Cabrera to win MVP again is very easy, the national league equivalent has been much harder to determine.

The Atlanta Braves have the best record in baseball, yet they been doing it without one guy carrying the offensive load; well, that and great pitching.

Paul Goldschmidt has a good batting average (.300), is second in the NL in home runs (31),leads the NL in RBI’s (104), has the second best OPS in the national league (.952), and is confidently the best player on the Diamondbacks.

Yet the D-backs are going to miss the playoffs. And it goes against every fiber in my being to vote for an MVP guy knowing that his team isn’t going to be playing October baseball.

So we’re left with a guy who is second in the NL in RBI’s (96), sixth in the league in batting average, (.316), is forth in the NL in hits (153), and is hitting .452 with runners in scoring position.

That’s not a misprint; Allen Craig has a .452 average with runners in scoring positing.

Ladies and Gentlemen your 2013 NL MVP, Allen Craig!

NL CY Young: Clayton Kershaw, LA Dodgers

This one is also an easy choice. Kershaw has the lowest ERA in the majors at 1.72, leads the major leagues in strikeouts with 197, and opponents are hitting .186 against him.

While 13 wins doesn’t help Kershaw factor in how atrocious the Dodgers were in the beginning of the year and the fact that pitchers wins don’t seem to matter anymore and Kershaw is the runaway choice.

AL CY Young: Max Scherzer, Detroit Tigers

This race is pretty much between two players: Yu Darvish and Max Scherzer. Here are their splits.

Darvish: 12-5, 2.68 ERA, 25 starts, 116 hits allowed, 20 homers allowed, 225 strikeouts, opponents bat .191 against him.

Scherzer: 19-1, 2.73 ERA, 26 starts, 120 hits allowed, 14 homers allowed, 196 strikeouts, opponents bat .190 against him.

The formula for picking Scherzer is simple. Similar ERA to Darvish + six fewer homers allowed + better batting average against + he doesn’t loose= AL CY Young.

Though if Darvish wins the award, that shouldn’t be an issue.

AL Manager of the Year: John Farrell, Boston Red Sox

Honorable mentions to Bob Melvin (name 10 players on the Oakland Athletics without the internet’s help), Joe Girardi (Injury devastated Yankees are in the race still) and Terry Francona (Cleveland stunk last year now they’re in the race).

Yet none of the honorable mentions had to deal with the disaster that was the Red Sox clubhouse last year. The chicken and beer boys have been replaced by the effort and beard boys. Farrell gets credit for the Sox having the best record in the AL and altering the clubhouse for the better.

NL Manager of the Year: Clint Hurdle, Pittsburgh Pirates

While Mike Matheny and Fredi Gonzalez are good managers of good teams, they were expected to be division leaders.

The only other manager who could dethrone Hurdle is Don Mattingly of the Dodgers. Considering the team was left for dead in 2013 BP, before Puig, Mattingly has greatly helped in having LA go 45-10 in 55 games.

Still, the NL West is the worst division in baseball and the stupidly high number that is the Dodgers payroll hinder Mattingly’s argument a bit.

Meanwhile Hurdle team has one fewer win than the Dodgers in the toughest division in baseball. 

Combine that with the notion that no Pirate offensive player is having a fantastic season and you get a team that relies heavily on pitching and management to win.

Hurdle has been one of the best this season in that department.