The Official End of the Season is less than 72 hours away. The exciting year of 2013 ends on Sunday and, although we aren’t quite sure who the AL Wild Cards are or where the NL Wild Card game will be played, we can be sure of some individual performances thus far. The stats aren’t technically finalized but the body of work is 99% complete and we have enough information to hand out the much anticipated Off The Bench for MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Manager of the year in each league. Without further ado, the envelopes please……
AL MVP:
Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers
With all due respect to Mike Trout, whom we’ll cover in a moment, Miguel Cabrera is amazing. Cabrera has an equal number of homers, 2 fewer RBIs and a 15 point higher batting average than he did last season when he made history and won the MVP. Also, Cabrera has helped lead the Tigers to their third straight division title. He currently leads the league in RBIs, AVG (for the third straight season), OBP, Slugging, OPS, OPS+ and, most importantly, wRC+. He might be the best right handed hitter we’ve ever seen. His combination of batting average and power is nearly unprecedented and his dominance is something unseen in decades. He is going to play in fewer than 150 games this season for the first time ever and his numbers are still all-world. Given the talent in their division, one could reasonably argue that the Tigers would be duking it out this weekend with the Indians or even Royals for the divisional title if not for Cabrera. Miggy’s WAR is 7 and the Tigers division lead is 4. That might be all you need to know.
Having said all of that, Mike Trout is a very deserving candidate as well. He leads MLB in WAR with a 9.1 mark and is second in wRC+. He leads the league in runs and has a .324 AVG to go along with 27 bombs and 33 steals. Remarkably, he also leads the league in walks. If I was building a team, Trout’s my guy. This year? He’s second to Cabrera. Not to mention the fact that the Angels probably could have finished below .500 without him.
NL MVP:
Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh Pirates
I have to be honest, this one isn’t as compelling as the AL race. McCutchen wins by default, more or less. Don’t get me wrong, he’s having a great season. He leads the NL in WAR and offensive WAR by a mile but he doesn’t lead in any traditional statistical category. In that sense, he isn’t dominant in any one thing, just all around very solid. He has a .318 AVG and a .404 OBP to go along with 20-27 bombs-steals. He plays great defense and he is the leader of the team that broke a 2 decade long losing streak. That’s enough to be an MVP. Don’t expect him to be unanimous though.
Honorable mention: Clayton Kershaw, Paul Goldschmidt, Shin-Soo Choo, Joey Votto
AL Cy Young:
Yu Darvish, Texas Rangers
Semi-quietly, Darvish has piled up a stellar season for a team right in the thick of the playoff hunt. Yu is 13-9 with a 2.82 ERA and leads the league in strikeouts. If that record isn’t cutting it for you, 1) listen to Brian Kenny, and 2) remember that Darvish has lost 4 (four!) 1-0 games this season. Darvish is 3rd in the AL in ERA and has been absolutely dominant at times.
True, chances are, Darvish won’t win the Cy Young this year. Max Scherzer of the Tigers probably will. Scherzer is tops in the league in wins and WHIP and has had a spectacular season by any measure. However, Darvish has been a bit better and it might take watching games rather than numbers to really and truly see the depth of that.
NL Cy Young:
Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
This one was easy. The easiest of all of them. Kershaw is the best pitcher on earth. Period. End Of Sentence. He threw 230 innings and still managed to post an absolutely stupid 1.88 ERA, his third straight ERA title and a number good enough to lower his career ERA to 2.61. He might be one of the best ever. He also lead the league in strikeouts and WHIP just for good measure. Not to mention nearly every even remotely meaningful sabermetric statistic. The only question with Kershaw is if he should win the MVP too.
As a small aside, the fact that Kershaw could pitch as well as he did over the course of the season and still win ‘only’ 15 games says as much as you need to know about the stupidity of the win. If the NL wants to win the All-Star game every year from now on they should just have Kershaw go the first 8 innings and then let Craig Kimbrel pitch the 9th.
AL Rookie of the Year :
Wil Meyers, Tampa Bay Rays.
Meyers only wins because the good rookies were all in the NL this year. Wil hit .291 with 13 homers and 51 RBIs. Solid numbers for a rookie, the best numbers in the AL, and good enough to win in a typical ROY race, which 2013 was.
NL Rookie of the Year:
Jose Fernandez, Miami Marlins
Literally the only bright spot on the Marlins this season was Fernandez, who was incredible. Fernandez led the league in fewest hits per 9 innings and over 172.2 innings posted a spectacular 2.19 ERA (which would have gotten a ton of attention if not for Kershaw). Fernandez also posted a sub-1 WHIP, spectacular for a rookie, and a feat only 4 starters in all of baseball were able to accomplish this season. Perhaps most impressive was Fernandez’s 12-6 record on the thus far 59-100 pathetic Marlins.
Honorable Mention: Yasel Puig. Puig would have walked to this award in almost any other season and would have won unanimously in the AL. In addition to taking the league by storm, he hit .324 and had 19 bombs and 11 steals as an integral part of what was baseball’s most potent lineup for most of the summer.
AL Manager of the Year:
John Farrell, Boston Red Sox.
Last season, no Farrell: 69-93, last place, utter disaster. This season, Farrell: 96-63, first place, best record in the AL, loving life.
NL Manager of the Year:
Clint Hurdle, Pittsburgh Pirates
1992-2012, no winning seasons. 2013, playoff bound. Well done, Clint.
-Max Frankel
