It was a bit of a wild ending for the 2007 baseball season, especially with the Mets 1978-Red-Sox-esque collapse and the one game playoff between the Rockies and the Padres. Too bad no one cares because they're in the National League. Anyway, here are my thoughts on the season awards, at least the ones that matter.
NL Rookie of the Year: I'm not going to lie, I had to look this up. It looks like Troy Tulowitzki of the Rockies will win it. 101 runs scored and 98 RBI is a heckuva rookie season. See Holliday above, however, for demerit points.
NL Cy Young: This is a no-brainer, Jake Peavey from the Padres. He ended up with the pitcher's triple crown (leading in wins, stikeouts and ERA), and led in ERA by .65 runs. Great season.
NL MVP: There are a number of people on the Jimmy Rollins bandwagon, and for good reason. Finishing with 139 runs, 212 hits and 20+ doubles, triples, homeruns and stolen bases is pretty remarkable. But I think I'm going with Matt Holliday. There's something about leading the league in batting average, and finishing 2nd in RBI and slugging, 3rd in OPS and leading with 91 extra base hits that strikes me as an award winning season. The point against him, however, is that he plays in Colorado, which means every offensive stat is inflated a bit. Now I'm talking myself out of this pick.
AL Rookie of the Year: Any other year and Delmon Young of the Devil Rays might win this award: 93 RBI and a .288 average is pretty good for a rookie. Unfortunately for him, he started the same year as Dustin Pedroia of our beloved Red Sox. Pedroia: .317 average, 86 runs scored and only 6 errors all season (!) for a .990 fielding percentage. That's a Gold Glove caliber year, except for a man named Placido Polanco of Detroit who made 0 errors in almost 700 chances! When you consider that Pedroia batted .182 in April, his season is even more remarkable. He batted .333 from the beginning of May, making Red Sox fans feel stupid after calling for his benching.
AL Cy Young: I felt that this was Josh Beckett's award to lose going into his final start of the season, and he did. He is the only pitcher to win 20 games in either league, and the first since 2005. He was barely behind in ERA going into that start, but got beat up enough that he ended outside of the top 15. Seeing as how CC Sabathia, John Lackey and Fausto Carmona all finished with better ERAs and 19 wins, Beckett didn't distance himself enough to take the award in my opinion. I say it should go to Sabathia, even though Carmona, his teammate, and Lackey finished with slightly better ERAs. My reasoning: of those 3 guys, who would you most want to pitch for you. I'd take Sabathia any day.
AL MVP: I really want to give this award to Magglio Ordonez of the Detroit Tigers. He won the batting title batting .363, drove in 139 runs (2nd place) and even led the league in doubles with 54. David Ortiz finished strong, batting .332, slugging .621 (3rd place), and 2nd in OPS (1.066). Though, Mike Lowell for the Sox was just as valuable this year, driving in 120 runs. In the end, this award has to go to Alex Rodriguez, who led in runs scored (143, 20 over the next guy), homeruns (54), RBI (an amazing 156 in 158 games), slugging (.645) and OPS (1.067). Mind you, he's still not even the guy I fear the most in the Yankees lineup in clutch situations, but what an amazing season. This will be his 3rd MVP, though I personally think he didn't deserve the other 2 (the 1st in 2003 with the awful Rangers and the 2nd in 2005 with the Yankees when Ortiz should have won it). Anyone who doesn't think A-Rod is the best player in baseball is lying, which is why he'll probably get $30 million per season this winter.
As for the postseason, it's a tough call. The NL is tough to figure, since they haven't even filled their playoff spots with the Rockies-Padres game tonight. I'll pick the sentimental favorite, the Cubs because I love Sweet Lou Pinella.
As for the AL teams, all of them have major flaw: Angels- offense, Indians- little postseason experience, Yankees- starting pitching, Sox- timely hitting. The truth is that the Indians are probably the most well-rounded team, but they don't play well against the better teams. I think that's due more to their inexperience in pressure situations, which is where the Sox and Yankees thrive.
So this is what I'm thinking for the AL: the Sox beat the Angels in 4, Indians beat the Yankees in 5. The Sox then beat the Indians in 6, then go on to beat the Cubs in 7 with Ellsbury stealing home to win it all. Okay, that last part won't happen, but I'll predict the Sox leaving Cubs fans in misery one more year.
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4 comments:
Danny,
I'll admit I skipped most of this post except the part that said TROY TULOWITZKI and MATT HOLLIDAY. Props to the Rockies, because I love them. I resent your little comment about the National League.
And I wish everyone would give the Colorado thin air thing a rest. You really think Holliday wouldn't be as good playing anywhere else? I don't buy it.
Au contraire, ma sere. The numbers support yours truly on this one. Here they are: home- .376 average, 25 hr, 82 rbi, .435 OBP, .722 slugging. One the road- .301 average, 11 hr, 55 rbi, .374 OBP, .485 slugging. That's a huge difference. He's good on the road, phenomenal at home. I think I may retract my MVP vote.
Also, let's be honest about something: Holliday did not touch the plate last night, he was out. Mind you, the way Hoffman was pitching, the Rockies were probably going to win anyway, but the ump blew the call and took away the Padres chance.
I agree, he didn't touch the plate. I didn't watch the game, but I hear that the Rockies had a homerun called a double when the ball hit a wheelchair and the ump thought it hit the railing. So I say it evens out. Regardless, we're playoff bound.
I still think it's unfair to attribute all Holliday's successes at home to thin air. Doesn't the home atmosphere contribute?
I was afraid you were going to pull up those statistics though. I still think he's MVP material, especially considering the contribution he's made to this end of the season Rockies push.
little known fact about me: i was at the second game the Rockies ever played, it was at Shea Stadium. I got a commemorative pin.
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