The MLB awards season is finally among us. I was waiting to post this to the site until the MVPs of both leagues were named, and they were named just hours ago. I’m going to go over both the Cy Young winners and the MVPs of both the National and American Leagues.
American League:
Cy Young award winner: Just Verlander of the Houston Astros.
Not much surprise with this one, Verlander dominated almost every start this season, including the postseason. Verlander’s numbers this year look like this:
W/L: 21-6
ERA: 2.58
WAR: 7.8
I could throw in more advanced sabermetrics but those are the most important, at least the import metrics that will win you your second Cy Young of your career. There would only be one pitcher in the AL that I would see giving him a run for his money, Gerrit Cole, who was traded from the Pirates before the deadline in mid-July, Cole just didn’t have enough starts in an AL uniform that could compete with Verlander. Verlander, on the other hand, let up more home runs(30) this season than he has than any other in his career. He called out the MLB around the All-Star break in early July about “juiced balls” which seemed to disappear during the postseason. Add that to another era of MLB baseball.
MVP: Mike Trout
Mike Trout is a no-doubter. Trout is the best baseball player that I have ever seen, and the best that I will more than likely see in my lifetime. Trout plays the game the way you want to see the game played. Busting it out of the box down the line, always chasing down fly balls, and setting up his team for wins day in and day out. Here are Trouts numbers for this season:
BA: .291
WAR: 8.3
SLG: .645
HR: 45
Another stellar year to add to his already historic eight-year career. This is Trout’s second MVP, but I can tell you right now he will win a lot more.
National League:
Cy Young Winner: Jacob deGrom
deGrom is the best part about the New York Mets franchise second would be rookie Pete Alonso who also won NL ROY(Rookie of the Year). deGrom’s numbers this season:
W/L: 11-8
ERA: 2.43
WAR: 7.9
deGrom lost eight games this season, but that can all be blamed on zero offensive production. If you look at those eight that he lost, they are all by two or fewer runs. This is deGrom’s second Cy Young and he won them in back to back years.
MVP: Cody Bellinger
We all saw the commercials that aired during the second half of this season, yes I’m talking about the game of MVP that Bellinger and Yelich played. Bellinger won. With the knee injury that Yelich suffered late in the Brewers postseason run(missed 19 games), I feel like it would have been a different story. Yelich may not have won back to back MVPs but he at least would have been in contention. Bellinger’s numbers this season:
BA: .305
WAR: 9.0
SLG: .629
HR: 47
If you’re a fan of the long ball, Bellinger is your guy. He was three away from joining the “50 club” Bellinger also had an OPS of 1.035 this season. This is Bellingers first MVP of his career, and he is the first Dodger since 2014 to claim the honor.
