Leading American League Cy Young, MVP and ROY

by faketeams on Apr 22, 2008 6:22 AM EDT in Baseball

Baseball Happenings has begun a dynamic feature that draws on the collective knowledge of the blogging community to provide intelligence on which players are currently considered the leading contenders for the big three baseball awards - MVP, Cy Young and ROY - for the American and National leagues. Last week, he had the initial results for the NL.

This week's AL voting should be available later today. Here is the way I voted. My biases for voting in the Cy Young and MVP awards lean towards those hitters and pitchers playing on contending teams. ROY determination is not tied are strongly to his team's record, but good rookies on expected paly-off contenders will get additional consideration.

AL Cy Young:

Javier Vasquez Chicago White Sox
Daisake Matzusaka Boston Red Sox
Ervin Santan Los Angeles Angels

This was a tough call as the Indians' Cliff Lee and the Royals' Zach Greinke have been outstanding, but both their clubs are under .500. I can't see myself, or the actual CY Young voters choosing a pitcher from a sub-.500 club.

AL MVP:

Manny Ramirez Boston Red Sox
Chone Figgins Los Angeles Angels
Kevin Youkilis Boston Red Sox

So far, the American League does not have the MVP-esque production one normally expects - big AVG, big HRs and Big RBIS. Manny Ramirez covers all three and gets the 1st place vote. After that, it came down to OBP (Chone Figgins) and OPS plus defensive contribution (Kevin Youkilis). Assuming the Baltimore Orioles can stay above .500, RF Nick Markakis will be in the conversation.

AL ROY:

Nick Blackburn Minnesota Twins
David Murphy Texas Rangers
Joba Chamberlain New york Yankees

Enjoy the time in the top two spots, Mssrs. Blackburn and Murphy. Joba lost a third of the season due to a family illness, and Tampa Bay Ray Evan Longoria hasn't been up for long enough. In two weeks, this could be the two-man race most expect it will be.

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CY, ROY and MVP

CY: Halladay
MVP: Man-Ram
ROY: Probably not listed in this post......

MLG_true_MVP-88'

by Hinz57er on Apr 22, 2008 11:08 AM EDT reply actions

Cliff Lee

I think not considering him the Cy Young award winner this far would qualify one as being clinically insane.

The reason pitchers from sub-.500 teams are not chosen is because they normally cannot amass the win totals that the voters inexplicably are obsessed with. But Lee is 3-0. His K/BB ratio is 10/1. And his WHIP is HALF OF THE NEXT BEST one. This is so absurd I can barely get my head around it.

Maybe I'm the insane one, but this is an absolute no-brainer. He loses points for only pitching 3 games so far, but everything else so far outweighs this.

Anyway, agree on Manny, but Ellsbury's my pick for ROY. How can you argue with a .444 OBP?

by bobo on Apr 22, 2008 11:48 AM EDT reply actions

Ellsbury

I chose Blackburn because a good starting pitcher is more valuable in the free agent market than a high OBP/SB CF. Ellsury's AVG wasn't very good through Sunday night, either. I know his OBP was still north of .400, though, but that SLG sotuh of .400.

by faketeams on Apr 22, 2008 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions

fair enough

It's a tough call. If Blackburn had 6 more strikeouts I'd be a lot more bullish on his future success. The control is nice though.

But yeah, assuming you are voting based on performance rather than expectation of future performance, Blackburn and the low ERA is probably the choice - you're right.

But as for Lee..... :)

by bobo on Apr 22, 2008 12:21 PM EDT up reply actions

also, a small request

Is there any way to separate the football posts on your RSS feed? I have faketeams on my "must read" list but am not remotely interested in football, and the posts are really distracting. Apparently the draft is coming up and maybe that's why there's a lot of posts lately, but it's not really worth it for me to read something religiously if I'm guaranteed to not want to read half of it.

Anyone else agree?

by bobo on Apr 22, 2008 12:16 PM EDT reply actions

No idea

Thanks for subscribing. I do not believe there are separate RSS feeds for baseball and football. The NFl Draft is a big event, and it is the one thing that real life football does that naturally lends itself to fantasy sports. A mock draft is nothing but a guess.

The NFL Draft stuff should end within a week.

FWIW, I am a 24/7/365 baseball guy myself.

by faketeams on Apr 23, 2008 8:56 AM EDT up reply actions

Football Draft

The football stuff will likely go away once the draft is over. Maybe a few days afterwards for thoughts on it......but it should be back to baseball, thereafter. IMO

MLG_true_MVP-88'

by Hinz57er on Apr 22, 2008 12:24 PM EDT reply actions

lazy

is it that hard to scroll down 2 inches and ignore it?

by superherodj on Apr 22, 2008 1:53 PM EDT reply actions

yes

Because I see that there are new posts on "must read" folder/label (in google reader). I look at what fees they're from. I see faketeams, and click. Then I see that they're all football posts. Very distracting.

Anyway I didn't initially realize that the NFL draft was around this time so they should go away soon.

by bobo on Apr 23, 2008 1:07 PM EDT up reply actions