NYaT Gives Out Our MLB Awards: National League

We did our American League picks earlier today. Now let's look at those award winners (or losers) from the Senior Circuit:

Joey Votto has been huge for the Reds in '10 (CBS Sportsline)

National League MVP: Joey Votto.
Followed by:  tied for second Albert Pujols and Carlos Gonzalez (Adrian Gonzalez, Ryan Howard and Troy Tulowitzki).

It's amazing to think back to the fact that the only way Votto made the All-Star Team this year was because of a fan vote for the last spot. Who were his biggest competition? Carlos Gonzalez and Ryan Zimmerman, two people he'll be battling for to win the MVP this season. Amazing. Albert Pujols is just having another one of his years but with both the Cards and Rockies not making the playoffs, I think that Pujols and CarGo are out. Same going for Adrian Gonzalez who had a fantastic year for a surprise Padre team, but went flat the last week of the season as his team did the same. But Votto (.424 OBP and .600 SLG lead the league, .324 average was second) has been fantastic for the surprise Reds, overtaking Pujols' Cards and winning the division for the first time in a long time. Amazingly, according to FanGraphs, Votto hit ZERO infield fly balls all season. None. Unless Luis Castillo is on the other team, infield fly balls are the one guarantee out (outfield fly balls can find grass or go beyond the wall and ground balls can find a hole but infield pops find gloves almost all the time). The one thing working against Votto and CarGo, though? Home parks that favor hitters. That didn't stop every single one of our voters, from putting Joey Votto first on their ballots making him a unanimous pick for NL MVP.

National League LVP: Jason Bay.
Followed by:  Melky Cabrera and a tie for third between Jeff Francouer, Nyjer Morgan, Oliver Perez and Pedro Feliz (Jose Reyes, Luis Castillo, Manny Ramirez, Matt Kemp, Nate McLouth, and Pablo Sandoval also receiving votes).

Read more>>

NYaT Gives Out Our MLB Awards: American League

What a year 2010 has been. No-hitters, perfect games, great rookies, saying good-bye to veterans, and watching playoff races come down to the very last day of the season. Well now that it's all over and we're turning the calendar to playoff baseball, here we are at NYaT to hand out our postseason awards to who we think is most deserving (panel consisting of Ben W, Jay, Ben P, Ari, Elissa, and myself). First up, the American League:

Hamilton looks to take home the AL MVP (Cleveland Plain-Dealer)

American League MVP: Josh Hamilton.  
Followed by: Robinson Cano, Miguel Cabrera and Evan Longoria.

Despite missing nearly all of September, Hamilton wins this award in a run-away. He got 4 out of 5 first place votes (Ben P put Robinson Cano ahead of Hamilton) and took home our crown. Hamilton had a very similar season to Joe Mauer's 2009 MVP season and although Robinson Cano and Miguel Cabrera were very, very good, Hamilton was better. The Rangers went 21-6 in June and Hamilton hit .454/.482/.815 for the month with 9 HR and 31 RBI. MVP material, indeed. This was a tough race to pick, though, with many good candidates not even listed such as Adrian Beltre, Jose Bautista and Carl Crawford. But Cano, Cabrera and Longoria were the only competition that Hamilton really did have for this race.

American League LVP: Chone Figgins.  
Followed by: Brandon Wood, and a tie for third between A.J. Burnett, Mike Cameron, Milton Bradley and Pat Burrell (Aaron Hill, Carlos Pena, Franklin Gutierrez, Garrett Atkins, and Matt Wieters also receiving votes).

It was a relatively close race between Figgins and fellow-AL West disappointment Brandon Wood, but Figgins huge contract gets him the "win" here. It really wasn't all Figgins' fault, but after being the one offensive free agent signing, he gets the blame which could have gone to Jose Lopez, Franklin Gutierrez, Casey Kotchman, or the rest of the Mariners historically anemic offense (minus Ichiro). Figgins was far from the worst, but a .259/.340/.306 line and highly negative UZR was far from what the Mariners were expecting when they gave him 4 years, $36 million (with an easily vesting option for another year). FanGraphs put Figgins worth at 0.5 WAR while Baseball-Reference was a lot more generous at 1.3 WAR. Either way, it's part of the reason that the Mariners have cleaned house in the clubhouse and have started to change around front-office personnel as well.

American League Cy Young: Felix Hernandez.  
Followed by: CC Sabathia and David Price (Jon Lester also receiving a vote).

Read more>>

How to Correctly Use a Bullpen

Many times I shake my head at the bullpen usage of Major League managers. No matter how many new tools are available to managers, they find more ways to micromanage bullpens and use relievers in rigid, antiquated ways. Roles are set and cannot be undone regardless of the circumstances. Closers can only pitch the 9th and will only do so in save situations. But sometimes you see a manager do something smart and it helps his team win a game. Yesterday in the Colorado vs. San Francisco game, Jim Tracy made one of these good decisions.

The Rockies were in desperate need of a win after falling in the first two games of the series. They started a rookie, Jhoulys Chacin, in his second career start and he was really good, giving the Rockies 7 innings of one-hit ball, striking out 7 and walking only 3 as the Rockies held a 4-0 lead into the 8th. Right handed reliever Matt Daley allowed a double, got an out and then served up a single to Aaron Rowand leaving the situation for Jim Tracy where he had runners at first and third and one out. Coming up next was left-handed hitting John Bowker, switch hitting Pablo Sandoval (who has an OPS 334 points higher and wOBA 124 points higher from the left side), and, potentially, left-handed hitting Aubrey Huff.

Tracy decided not to mess around with middle relievers. He realized the game was right here. He went straight to his closer, Franklin Morales, a power lefty. Morales struck out pitch hitter Andres Torres and then struck out the Giants' best hitter, Pablo Sandoval. Inning over and threat diverted. That was your high leverage situation and Morales was brought on at the right time to get the Rockies out of it.

Read more>>